Chapter 9 - WHEN THE FAMILY STORY LEFT THE FAMILY
Brooke’s brokerage investigation widened.
It could no longer remain a private dispute between sisters because client money had entered an escrow account.
Paige Rollins received her deposit back.
The brokerage began reviewing Brooke’s communications and transaction files.
Rachel did not celebrate.
Brooke’s career had always been the axis of her identity.
Losing control of it would make her desperate.
Samantha warned Rachel not to communicate with Brooke except through counsel when necessary.
Rachel obeyed.
Elaine did not.
She called both daughters constantly until Rachel finally stopped answering.
Then Laura Bennett entered the story.
Not another sister.
Their late father’s younger sister.
Aunt Laura was seventy-one and lived in Madison, Wisconsin.
Elaine had called her crying.
Laura called Rachel the next morning.
“I’m not taking sides.”
Rachel almost hung up.
Laura continued.
“I’m calling because your father once worried Brooke would do something like this.”
Rachel sat down.
“What?”
“Not forge documents.”
“Then what?”
“Use the family’s fear against somebody.”
Rachel thought of Brooke making Elaine afraid Rachel would leave.
Making Rachel’s surgery into an opportunity.
Making a temporary disability into evidence she could not manage her own life.
Laura explained that years earlier, when Brooke’s first real-estate deal collapsed, she had borrowed twelve thousand dollars from their father.
She repaid it.
But only after he confronted her about misleading him regarding what the money was for.
Rachel had never known.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he didn’t want you two competing over who disappointed him less.”
That sounded exactly like him.
Laura added something else.
“Your father told me Brooke had a habit. When she wants something, she doesn’t ask herself whether people agreed. She asks herself whether she can convince them afterward that agreeing was reasonable.”
Rachel wrote the sentence down.
It described the current crisis almost perfectly.
That evening Samantha called with new information.
The notary’s lawyer had produced a copy of the identification presented at the appointment.
Temporary Illinois credential.
Insurance card.
Both in Rachel’s name.
The insurance card had been real.
Rachel remembered giving it to Brooke when Brooke drove her to a pre-op appointment.
The temporary credential had not been.
Someone had created it from Rachel’s legitimate information.
The forged POA had required planning.
Then Samantha said, “There’s one part I still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“Brooke took enormous risk for a six-week rental.”
Rachel looked at the skyline.
Twenty-two thousand dollars was substantial.
May you like
Not enough to justify destroying a career.
Unless the rental was not the real objective.
