You said Norman would sign anything if he thought Chloe was in trouble.”
Kyle’s eyes widened.
Mara glanced at me.
Neither of us interrupted.
Susan kept going.
“You said the farm had more than enough equity and that by the time anyone understood, the transfer would already be done.”
“Kyle?” Heather said.
He exploded.
“Everybody stop talking!”
The room fell silent.
His chest rose and fell.
Then his phone buzzed on the counter.
Kyle looked at it.
Mara looked at it too.
“Expecting confirmation?” she asked.
Kyle reached for the phone.
I reached it first.
He stared at me.
“Chloe.”
“What happens today, Kyle?”
“Give me my phone.”
“What happens when the money is released?”
His voice went low.
“You don’t understand what you’re interfering with.”
“That sounds very different from helping me avoid prison.”
He said nothing.
Mara asked, “Where was the money supposed to be sent?”
Kyle laughed bitterly.
“You think I’m answering you?”
“You already answered quite a lot.”
That was when he realized what Susan had done.
He looked at his mother as if seeing an enemy.
Susan sank onto the couch.
Heather moved farther away from both of them.
Mara asked me for the lender information from Dad’s paperwork.
I handed her the pages.
She stepped into the hallway and made two calls.
One was to the institution handling the mortgage transaction.
She identified the authorization as disputed and explained that the property owner had signed after receiving allegedly fraudulent representations about his daughter’s legal situation.
The second call concerned preserving the relevant communications and transaction records.
Kyle listened from the kitchen.
With every sentence, he became paler.
When Mara returned, he said, “You can’t stop it.”
She placed her phone beside the folder.
“They can stop a disbursement while authority and consent are challenged.”
His confidence finally vanished.
He grabbed his keys.
I blocked the doorway.
“Where are you going?”
“Move.”
“No.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
“I don’t want to keep you here.”
That surprised him.
I stepped aside.
“But before you leave, understand something.
