The woman holding the folder wasn’t a friend.
Her name was Melissa Crane, and she had driven from Milwaukee believing she was meeting the owners of a lakefront vacation property she had helped rent for the summer.
Ten minutes later, the new owner, Thomas Reed, called me.
“Evelyn,” he said carefully, “there are people here claiming they have reservations.”
Reservations.
Plural.
I drove to Lake Geneva with Nancy and my attorney, Rebecca Shaw.
By the time we arrived, three families were standing near the driveway holding printed confirmation emails.
One family had paid $6,400 for two weeks in July.
Another had placed a $3,200 deposit for August.
Every confirmation listed Lauren Bennett as property manager.
Derek had created the rental account.
My daughter had collected the money.
Lauren stood beside the SUV with her arms crossed.
“We were going to tell you.”
“When?”
“After summer.”
Derek stepped forward.
“This is being exaggerated. We were covering maintenance costs.”
“You charged strangers to stay in a house you didn’t own.”
“It was family property.”
“No,” I said. “It was property owned by a member of your family.”
Rebecca asked Melissa for the rental paperwork.
The records showed that more than $31,000 in deposits had been collected over five months.
Some of the money had paid for patio furniture, a boat lift, and new appliances.
The rest had been transferred into an account belonging to Derek’s consulting company.
Lauren’s expression changed when Rebecca read that aloud.
“You said it was all in the house account.”
Derek snapped, “Not now.”
That was when I first realized Lauren might not know everything.
Then Melissa handed us another document.
It was a “future ownership authorization” claiming I had agreed to transfer the lake house to Lauren after the summer season.
My name appeared at the bottom.
The signature looked close.
Not close enough.
Lauren stared at it.
“Mom signed that,” Derek said quickly.
“I did not.”
