Apparently, neither she nor Brent had opened the folder in years.
“What happens next?” I asked Mara.
“They have twenty days to respond to the petition.
The judge may hear our request for temporary protection sooner.
We have evidence that you were excluded from your property and that your belongings were packed without permission.”
“Brent will say I left voluntarily.”
“He already sent an email saying he removed you because you refused to obey him.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course he had.
Mara continued.
“He also said he intends to change the locks and charge you for storing anything you left behind.”
“That helps us, doesn’t it?”
“More than he understands.”
Within an hour, messages began arriving from numbers I did not recognize.
The first was from Mom’s neighbor.
Naomi, your mother says there has been a misunderstanding.
Please call her.
The next was from one of Brent’s gaming friends.
Your brother says you are trying to steal his inheritance.
Then Mom used a cousin’s phone.
Please stop this.
Brent did not understand.
We are family.
I forwarded every message to Mara and answered none of them.
That afternoon, an email appeared with the subject line URGENT FAMILY MATTER.
Brent had copied Mara, Mom, two cousins, and a man I later learned was an online real-estate agent.
He wrote that he was the rightful owner because Mom had verbally transferred the house to him.
He accused me of exploiting Dad’s death, hiding paperwork, and using my salary to intimidate people who had less money.
At the bottom, he demanded that I withdraw the case, restore every automatic payment, reimburse him for the emotional distress of being served, and continue sending $3,000 each month until the ownership dispute was resolved.
Mara replied with four sentences.
She requested the deed Brent claimed gave him ownership.
She instructed him not to alter the property.
She told him all future contact must go through her office.
Then she attached the publicly recorded deed bearing my name.
He answered eleven minutes later.
That deed is old.
Mara asked him to produce a newer one.
He stopped replying.
The canceled services began catching up with them.
Grocery deliveries failed first.
Then the premium internet account expired after Brent attempted to replace my card with one that was declined.
The utility companies issued notices requiring new payment methods.
I did not ask anyone to shut off essential services, and I instructed Mara to ensure the house remained protected from damage.
I continued paying the mortgage directly because I was not going to destroy my own credit or risk the property to prove a point.
What I stopped doing was disguising support as an automatic force of nature.
For the first time in three years, Mom and Brent saw separate bills with their own names nowhere on the payment side.
Six days after service, Brent filed a response without an attorney.
It was twenty-three pages long.
He claimed Dad had always intended the house to pass to the male child.
He said my career made me financially independent and therefore less deserving.
He argued that buying groceries and paying bills did not give me the right to control the family.
On the final page, he attached what he called a deed.
It was a one-page document he had typed himself.
It stated that Mom transferred all ownership to him in exchange for his promise to care for her.
Mom had signed it at the kitchen table while I was away.
The paper was not notarized.
