Chapter 9 - AMY'S SISTER
Amy’s younger sister, Lauren, had always been unstable with money.
I knew she had debts.
I did not know Teresa had been paying them.
Detective Reed traced three transfers.
Four thousand dollars.
Six thousand dollars.
Then eleven thousand dollars.
All from accounts connected to Victor.
Lauren broke quickly when questioned.
She had not understood the entire scheme.
But she knew enough.
Teresa wanted information about my schedule.
Lauren provided it.
Teresa wanted to know when Amy and Frederick would be home alone.
Lauren told her.
Teresa wanted Amy pressured emotionally so she would appear unstable if a financial dispute happened.
Lauren helped.
Amy sat across from her sister during the interview.
Lauren cried.
“I thought she was protecting Connor.”
“From me?”
Lauren could not answer.
Amy stood.
“You watched me struggle for months.”
“I needed money.”
“So you sold me.”
That sentence ended the conversation.
But Lauren provided the detail we needed most.
The birthday party was supposed to end with Amy signing something.
Teresa had prepared paperwork claiming Amy had received $80,000 from me as part of a private marital arrangement.
The plan was to push the document in front of Amy while she was exhausted.
Teresa expected her to sign without reading it.
Amy never reached that part because I came home early.
That blue dress in my shopping bag had saved us more than I realized.
I came home because the shipping notification said it had arrived at my office early.
I decided to surprise her.
Had I returned at my normal time, the party would have been over.
The deed might have been gone.
Amy might have signed the false document.
The loan paperwork might have moved forward the next morning.
I sat in our car afterward staring through the windshield.
“How close were we?”
Amy looked at me.
“Too close.”
Then my phone rang.
Ethan.
His voice was tense.
“Connor, check the company account.”
I opened the banking app.
One of our operating accounts had been frozen.
Then another.
Then another.
A legal dispute had been filed based on Teresa’s supposed ownership interest.
Payroll was due Monday.
Twenty-eight employees depended on that account.
My mother had failed to take my house.
So she had decided to attack the people who worked for me.
May you like
And for the first time, I realized she was willing to burn everything if she could not control it.
TOBE CONTINUED
