PART 3: The Paper Tiger
“Tessa?” Brandon whispered, his face completely drained of color. “What is she talking about? You told me Marcus was just a title clerk who found a loophole. You said the property was legally half mine because of Grandma’s old estate drafts!”
“Shut up, Brandon!” Tessa hissed, her eyes darting toward the open road behind the investigators’ SUV. “Don’t say another word! You’re the one who signed the transfer! You’re the one who told me your sister wouldn’t care!”
“But… but the three million!” Brandon stammered, his hands shaking as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “The wire transfer went through this morning! It’s in your company’s account!”
“Actually, Mr. Brooks, it isn’t,” Detective Miller corrected, stepping forward and holding up a certified freeze order. “At 1:45 PM today, federal bank examiners flagged the three-million-dollar incoming wire from ‘Geneva Acquisitions LLC’ as suspected proceeds of fraudulent activity. The funds have been locked in escrow. Your girlfriend’s business account is currently frozen.”
The man in the navy suit—who was indeed not a licensed real estate agent, but a disgraced former broker named Warren who had been paid fifty thousand dollars to play the part—dropped his folder onto the gravel.
“I was just hired to deliver the paperwork!” Warren yelled, his hands flying into the air. “I didn’t forge anything! Brandon gave me the deed! He told me it was a private family dissolution!”
“You’re all going to have plenty of time to explain who told what to whom,” Detective Miller said calmly, as his partner stepped up behind Brandon and clicked the first handcuff around his wrist.
“Clara! Please!” Brandon screamed, his voice cracking as he struggled against the investigator’s grip. “We’re family! You have millions! Why are you doing this to me over a house you don’t even live in? Tessa needed that money to keep her employees paid! I did it for love!”
I looked at my brother—the boy I had protected, the brother I had bailed out of debt three times before, the man who had looked at my grandmother’s life’s work and saw nothing but a cash machine to impress a con artist.
“You didn’t do it for love, Brandon,” I said, my voice cold and steady. “You did it because you’ve always believed that my hard work belonged to you. Today, you finally found the limit.”
With Tessa and Brandon being loaded into the back of separate patrol cars, my attorney’s car pulled up to the gate, ready to help me reclaim the only place that had ever felt like home…
