Chapter 17 - The Missing Seven Hundred Thousand
By the next hearing, Tessa had obtained certified hospital records and a statement from the officer who managed the operating-room schedule. The times placed me under anesthesia when the trust deed claimed I'd signed it. An independent document examiner also identified substantial differences between my known signatures and the one on the transfer.
Mom signed a sworn declaration that she had not witnessed any such signing. She withdrew her ownership claim and corrected her earlier statements about taxes and maintenance.
Dad retained a new lawyer. This one made fewer speeches.
The closing records arrived through expedited discovery. They showed a proposed loan tied to the $1.8 million purchase price, instructions for funds to pass through the supposed family trust, and a separate $700,000 disbursement labeled a consulting and development fee to Cedar Bend Management.
Dad controlled Cedar Bend.
Mom had been promised $1.1 million for their retirement. The other $700,000 had never appeared in the explanation she'd been given. Investigators would have to establish whether the lender and other parties had been misled and where any money was meant to go. The arrangement was enough to explain why Dad had needed an enforceable deed so badly.
"He didn't want a home," I told Tessa after the hearing. "He wanted the leverage that came with it."
"Maybe both," she said. "People are allowed ugly motives without a single simple reason."
I sat with that. Dad had always insisted he was preserving the Carter family. Maybe he believed it whenever he said it. Maybe he also loved the idea of money no one could keep from him. Neither explanation gave him the right to sign my name.
The civil court set a final evidentiary hearing on title. The disputed receipts, deed, escrow instructions, and older power-of-attorney document were also referred to appropriate authorities for independent review. There was no instant arrest and no declaration that every allegation was proved.
May you like
One evening, I went to the east pasture where the planned road touched the fence line. The traffic beyond the trees sounded louder than it had when I was a girl.
I understood then that, even if I won, I would still have to choose what to do with land that other people saw only as an amount of money.
