Chapter 10 - Wade's Bargain
Wade's countermove came through the bank, not the porch. He claimed Margaret had verbally approved the loan after May's hospitalization and treated expenses as advances against Caroline's inheritance. No such agreement existed, but the wording sounded like Margaret at her worst. He attached old payments from the green file, copied when Caroline used it for a mortgage application, and called them proof of a lending pattern. Then he offered a bargain: confirm the first withdrawal, and he would accept responsibility for later increases. If she refused, he would tell the investigator Caroline requested the original money and made every payment. Caroline could lose her dental-office job if her manager learned she had used Margaret's identity. "He wants me to choose which one of you gets blamed," Margaret said. Caroline answered, "No. He wants you to save me the way you always do." The sentence sounded like a warning, not a request. Wade had found the threat Margaret trained them to believe.
