Chapter 4 - Lauren’s Numbers Didn’t Add Up
Attorney Rebecca Kane did not react dramatically.
Evelyn appreciated that.
Rebecca practiced elder law and estate planning in Worthington and had seen families become strangely creative around paid-off houses.
She reviewed the deed first.
“Don’t sign this.”
“We weren’t going to.”
“Good.”
She tapped the LLC section.
“This gives your children significant practical control if you voluntarily transfer the property. You would be depending on contract language they drafted.”
George frowned.
“Could they force us into Cedar Glen?”
“Not based on anything you’ve shown me.”
No diagnosis.
No guardianship.
No medical incapacity.
No valid power granting either child that authority.
Their children had been attempting persuasion backed by humiliation and fear.
Cruel.
But not magical legal power.
Rebecca advised them to secure their financial documents, review existing powers of attorney, freeze their credit as a precaution, and make sure nobody had been added to banking or property records.
Then she asked the obvious question.
“Why do your children need the house?”
Evelyn answered first.
“Greed.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“That may be true. But greed usually has a number attached.”
So Evelyn started looking for the number.
Lauren had worked in residential real estate for fourteen years.
Business had slowed.
But her social media still showed restaurant dinners, weekend trips, and staged photographs in expensive homes.
Dylan owned a small commercial landscaping company.
He had complained about fuel costs and equipment repairs but still drove a new pickup.
George called neither child.
Instead, Evelyn called Lauren’s husband, Mark.
Mark answered carefully.
“I don’t want to get between you and Lauren.”
“She already put you there.”
Silence.
Evelyn asked one question.
“Is Lauren in financial trouble?”
Mark exhaled.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“What do you know?”
“She guaranteed a business loan for Dylan.”
Evelyn sat down.
“Why would she do that?”
“Because he couldn’t qualify alone.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“And you agreed?”
“I didn’t know until February.”
That explained something Evelyn had noticed but dismissed.
Lauren and Dylan had become unusually close during the last year.
Constant phone calls.
Private conversations at holidays.
Defensive jokes about “keeping family assets in the family.”
“What happens if Dylan can’t pay?” Evelyn asked.
Mark’s answer came quietly.
“Lauren can be pursued too.”
“How much is the loan?”
“Last statement I saw?”
He paused.
“Just under four hundred thousand.”
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The house valuation Lauren had prepared suddenly looked less like curiosity.
It looked like arithmetic.
