Chapter 5 - THE SECOND ACCOUNT
Lena Park found it.
Melissa recommended her after tracing the home-equity line became complicated.
Lena was a forensic accountant who spoke in calm sentences and refused to guess.
“The $1,200 doesn’t disappear after refinance because it isn’t only servicing Robert’s line.”
Claire sat across from her.
“What else?”
Genesis had a separate personal loan.
$146,000.
Taken eighteen months earlier.
Borrower:
Genesis Bennett.
Purpose listed:
household expenses.
Actual transfer after funding:
$140,000 to Bennett Project Group.
Claire stared.
“Jackson borrowed from both parents’ house and his mother personally.”
“Looks like it.”
“Does Robert know?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Robert did not.
Genesis had used investments in her own name as collateral.
That part was legally hers to risk.
She had not told her husband.
“And the payment?”
Lena pointed.
$1,203 monthly.
There it was again.
Genesis wanted Claire to become the payment stream on Genesis’s private rescue of Jackson.
But the proposed condo refinance was larger than both debts combined.
Claire added the numbers.
Robert’s line: approximately $312,000.
Genesis’s personal loan: approximately $146,000.
Total:
$458,000.
Proposed refinance:
$480,000.
Almost exact.
Claire sat back.
“They want my condo to clean up everything.”
“Yes.”
“And then I pay Genesis $1,200 every month anyway.”
“That part appears separate from the refinance documents.”
“So why?”
Lena smiled slightly.
“That sounds like a family question.”
Claire hated family questions.
Robert called later that day.
He had hired his own attorney and accountant.
That mattered.
He was no longer asking Genesis what was true.
“I owe you an apology.”
Claire looked out the condo window.
“For what part?”
Robert almost laughed.
“Fair.”
He continued.
“I believed Jackson when he said you promised the apartment.”
“Why?”
“Genesis showed me an email.”
Claire went cold.
“What email?”
Robert forwarded it.
On screen appeared what looked like a message from Claire:
I’m okay moving the condo into the family LLC as long as Jackson handles the loan and we keep everything fair.
Claire stared.
She had never written it.
The sender address looked right.
Almost.
One letter was wrong.
An extra “l” in her surname.
A look-alike email account.
“That isn’t mine.”
Robert’s voice dropped.
“I know that now.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Genesis had shown Robert fake written consent.
That explained his coldness at dinner.
He believed Claire had agreed and then backed out at the final moment while his home was at risk.
“Who sent it?”
“Genesis forwarded it to me.”
“Does she know it’s fake?”
Robert did not answer.
“I’m finding out.”
Claire looked at the recorded evidence file.
The family dinner had not been spontaneous pressure.
Robert had been recruited using a false version of Claire’s consent.
The papers were prepared.
Closing was scheduled.
Everyone had been placed around the table for one purpose:
May you like
force Claire to complete a deal she had never agreed to begin.
And the person who built the lie might not have been Jackson.
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