Chapter 6 - Friday at Four
"One million eight hundred thousand dollars," Tessa said, reading the sale price aloud.
My mother jerked toward Dad. "You told me one point one."
Dad didn't look at her. He looked at his lawyer.
Bledsoe was reading the document for the first time. I could tell by the way his mouth tightened at every page.
"The agreement was produced this morning in response to our request for the proposed transaction," Tessa said. "My client has never approved a sale."
"My husband said the buyer was waiting on a family issue," Mom said. "I thought we'd work out the money with Evelyn."
"You sued me," I reminded her. "You asked the court to take the house."
"Robert said we had to protect it."
Judge Simmons tapped his pen. "Mrs. Carter, speak when you're called on. Mr. Bledsoe, explain how your clients propose to convey property to which the defendant holds recorded title."
Bledsoe requested a conference with his clients. The judge allowed it and resumed after lunch.
Tessa and I ate crackers from a vending machine because neither of us wanted lunch.
"Can they close without me?" I asked.
"They can try to create a paper trail that looks like authority," she said. "It doesn't make the transfer valid. But a bad recording can cause expensive trouble. That's why we're asking the court to keep the status quo while we untangle it."
"Will the judge?"
"Our evidence is strong. I won't promise an order before he signs one."
I liked that answer. In the Navy, people who guaranteed an outcome before they'd checked the conditions were people you didn't want beside you when something broke.
At the afternoon session, the judge asked for proof of the buyer's identity, the seller's claimed authority, and any loan commitment tied to the closing. Bledsoe could produce the contract but not a clear chain explaining how my father could sell what he didn't own.
Mom kept looking at him, waiting for the missing explanation.
Dad gave her nothing.
Judge Simmons stated that he was considering temporary relief and would review additional evidence before ruling. He directed the parties to preserve the property and refrain from altering title pending his decision.
May you like
Then Tessa's phone lit up beneath the table. A woman had arrived downstairs with records from my grandfather's former lawyer. Her name was Dana Hale.
She said the buyer's name on the contract wasn't the name that mattered.
