business had been used to conceal what happened to Dad’s money.
Mom claimed she’d been trying to recover money Dad owed Charlie. The documents I’d just reviewed told another story, and I asked why she’d believed Charlie.
“I loved him,” she said.
Nobody immediately responded. Wiping her cheek, she explained their relationship had started years earlier, ended, then resumed when Dad became ill.
Ryan sat down. “With Dad’s former business partner?”
“Yes.”
Charlie had claimed Thomas cheated him and showed Mom records she believed. He promised they’d share the condominium, but transferred ownership to himself and, according to her, stopped answering calls three months later.
She’d betrayed Dad, diverted his funds, and ultimately been deceived by the man she trusted. I could recognize her devastation without excusing the harm she’d caused us.
“Why my house?” I asked.
She glanced down the hallway as though hoping for an easier conversation. Ryan pressed her to answer, and she finally admitted receiving a demand letter from Charlie.
He demanded $200,000 or threatened to report everything to authorities. Kelsey called it blackmail, and Mom agreed.
“You thought I would pay?”
“Once the family was together again, perhaps you would help.” She looked at me. “I was going to ask you to refinance.”
The bedrooms, sudden reconciliation, and Ryan’s supposed landlord notice were all pieces of another crisis I was expected to resolve. She hadn’t even known who lived in my home before deciding it could finance her escape.
“You planned to move Ryan’s family in and then ask me to mortgage this house?”
“When you say it like that—”
