Chapter 3 - WHAT BRANDON NEEDED THEM TO BELIEVE
Brandon owned a regional commercial landscaping company called Greenline Development.
Five years earlier, it had been profitable enough for fourteen employees, three crews, and a small warehouse outside Marietta.
Claire knew the last year had been difficult.
She had not known how difficult.
“How much trouble is Greenline in?”
Brandon leaned against the counter.
“This isn’t the time.”
“It became the time when your wife assaulted Mom in my backyard.”
Vanessa bristled.
“Stop calling it assault.”
Claire looked at the bruise forming across Evelyn’s cheek.
“What would you call it?”
Vanessa looked away first.
Brandon walked toward his sister.
“I have investors coming tonight. If this meeting goes well, I can refinance the equipment debt and finish two projects that are tying up our cash.”
“Why here?”
“It looks better than a conference room.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He didn’t answer.
Claire remembered the way his face had dropped when she raised the keys.
She went upstairs.
Her bedroom had been entered.
Nothing was obviously missing, but one drawer of her desk sat slightly crooked.
Inside, the folder containing copies of the property tax records was gone.
Claire came back downstairs holding the empty hanging file.
“Where are my house documents?”
Brandon’s expression hardened.
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.”
Vanessa frowned.
“What documents?”
Claire ignored her.
She called the woman who had cleaned the house every other Thursday for three years.
“Hey, Maria. Quick question. Has anybody been using my office while I’ve been gone?”
A pause.
Then Maria said, “Mr. Brandon told me not to clean in there anymore.”
“When?”
“Maybe a month ago.”
Claire looked directly at her brother.
“Thanks.”
She ended the call.
Vanessa’s face began changing.
“Brandon?”
He pushed away from the counter.
“Everybody calm down.”
Claire almost laughed.
Instead, she walked to the front hall and opened the small console where unopened household mail was usually stacked during her trips.
Empty.
“Where’s my mail?”
“I forwarded some things,” Brandon admitted.
“You forwarded my mail?”
“Only house-related stuff.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You said Claire knew.”
Brandon snapped, “Can you stop talking for five minutes?”
That was the first time Vanessa looked scared of the conversation rather than annoyed by it.
Evelyn came back from the hallway.
“Brandon.”
He turned.
She shook her head.
Just once.
Claire saw it.
A warning.
“What does Mom know?”
“Nothing.”
Evelyn said, “Claire—”
“What does he think you’re going to tell me?”
Evelyn sat slowly.
Her shoulders looked smaller than they had that morning.
“I knew his business was struggling.”
“How badly?”
She swallowed.
“I lent him money.”
Brandon muttered, “Mom.”
Claire looked between them.
“How much?”
Evelyn didn’t answer.
Claire repeated it.
“How much money?”
“Fifty-eight thousand.”
Claire felt something inside her settle rather than explode.
Their father had left Evelyn a modest retirement account. It wasn’t wealth. It was her safety net.
“You gave Brandon fifty-eight thousand dollars?”
“He was going to repay it.”
Brandon said, “I am going to repay it.”
“With tonight’s investors?”
He didn’t answer.
Claire finally understood one piece of the puzzle.
Her mother had been hiding Brandon’s financial trouble.
But that still didn’t explain why Brandon needed people to believe the mansion belonged to him.
Claire picked up her phone.
“I’m calling my attorney.”
Brandon moved between her and the hallway.
“No.”
Claire stopped.
He realized what he had done and stepped aside.
Too late.
May you like
She looked at him carefully.
“What exactly happens if somebody checks who owns this house?”
