Chapter 2 - Wesley’s fingers trembled.He stared at the document as if the words might rearrange themselves.
“What is this?”
“You tell me.”
Emily grabbed the paper.
Her eyes scanned the page.
Then widened.
Cora suddenly stopped breathing.
I sat across from them.
A server approached.
“Would anyone care for—”
“Not now,” Wesley snapped.
The server stepped away.
I folded my hands.
“I noticed the house had apparently become interesting to you.”
Nobody answered.
“So I did some checking.”
Wesley looked at me.
“Mom, you’re misunderstanding—”
“No.”
My voice was calm.
“That’s the problem. I understood perfectly.”
I tapped the paper.
“This is a copy of the title record.”
Wesley’s jaw tightened.
“The house is in my name.”
“Half of it.”
Silence.
That got him.
His eyes dropped again.
The document showed a legal interest in the property that had been quietly transferred into a trust six months earlier.
Not by me.
By him.
Using paperwork bearing my signature.
A signature I had never authorized.
Emily’s face lost its color.
“I didn’t know about this.”
I looked at her.
“That is not the answer I was waiting for.”
“I swear.”
“Then why were you discussing listing my house?”
She opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Cora looked at Wesley.
“You said she had signed everything.”
I turned toward her.
“Everything?”
Cora froze.
That single word exposed more than anything else could have.
Wesley stood.
“Mom, we need to talk somewhere private.”
“No.”
His face hardened.
“You’re making a scene.”
I looked around the restaurant.
Nobody was staring.
Not yet.
“No, Wesley. You made the scene when you charged dinner for people who were told not to invite me.”
He lowered his voice.
“This isn’t what you think.”
“Then explain it.”
He couldn't.
That was the answer.
I slid another document across the table.
“This is the power of attorney you filed.”
Wesley stared.
Then Emily whispered,
“That signature is fake.”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
Cora suddenly looked at Wesley.
“You told me it was legitimate.”
He turned toward her.
“Stop.”
“You told me her lawyer handled it.”
“Cora.”
She stood.
“So you lied to me too?”
That was when I knew something bigger was happening.
Not simply a plan to sell my house.
They were fighting among themselves.
And the cracks were already showing.
I leaned forward.
“You thought I wouldn't notice because you assumed I was lonely.”
Emily looked down.
“You thought I was old.”
Cora's eyes filled with tears.
“And you thought I was too trusting.”
Wesley looked at me.
His voice became soft.
“Mom, I was trying to protect you.”
I almost laughed.
“By stealing my house?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
He hesitated.
“There's a debt.”
That word changed everything.
“What debt?”
Wesley looked at Cora.
Cora looked at Emily.
Nobody answered.
“Wesley.”
“It's complicated.”
“Make it simple.”
He finally whispered,
“The company is in trouble.”
I stared at him.
“What company?”
He swallowed.
“My company.”
“You told me it was doing better than ever.”
“It was.”
“Was?”
He sat down.
“We owe people money.”
“How much?”
Silence.
Then Emily spoke.
“More than he can pay.”
My heart started pounding.
“How much?”
Wesley looked at me.
“Almost eight hundred thousand dollars.”
I felt the room tilt.
Eight hundred thousand.
He had been smiling at dinner while spending my money.
They weren't celebrating.
They were desperate.
And suddenly the house made sense.
The one asset large enough to save him.
My house.
My name.
My credit.
My family.
Everything.
I rose.
“I’m going home.”
Wesley grabbed my wrist.
“Mom, please.”
I pulled away.
“Don't touch me.”
Then he said something that stopped me.
“You don't understand what happens if I don't get that house.”
I stared at him.
“What happens?”
His face went blank.
“We won't just lose the company.”
“What else?”
He looked at the floor.
“They'll come after you.”
I stood completely still.
“Who?”
Wesley didn't answer.
Cora did.
“The people he borrowed from.”
And suddenly the dinner wasn't about a house anymore.
It was about a debt.
A debt large enough to make my own son forge my signature.
But there was one thing none of them knew.
I had already hired someone to investigate Wesley's company.
And what I had discovered was much worse.
The eight hundred thousand dollars...
wasn't missing.
May you like
Someone had stolen it.
And that someone had access to my family.
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