Chapter 7 - THE TAPE AND THE NOTARY
The breakthrough in the criminal case came three weeks later, when the King County Prosecutor's Office formally issued criminal indictments against Grant Ellis, Elaine Ellis, and Tessa Ellis for Felony Forgery, Criminal Conspiracy, and Attempted Grand Larceny.
With the threat of actual prison time hanging over their heads, the united front my family had presented began to rot from the inside.
On a cold Thursday evening, my phone rang. The caller ID showed Tessa.
I looked at the phone for three chimes before tapping the record button on my computer and answering.
"Hello, Tessa."
"Mara... please don't hang up," Tessa begged, her voice high-pitched and breathless. She wasn't crying for the camera now; she was crying out of sheer terror. "Please, Mara. You have to talk to the prosecutor. They came to my apartment today with an indictment notice! They said I'm facing up to five years in prison!"
"You committed felony forgery, Tessa," I said quietly, keeping my voice emotionless. "You paid a notary cash to stamp my name on a fraudulent transfer of five million dollars."
"It wasn't my idea!" Tessa blurted out, her panic instantly driving her to betray our parents. "It was Dad's idea! I swear to God, Mara, it was Dad and Mom!"
I leaned forward, listening carefully. "What do you mean?"
"After you left on Christmas night, Dad was furious!" Tessa sobbed frantically. "He said you were an ungrateful bitch who didn't deserve that money. He was the one who found an old lease agreement you signed five years ago in the attic filing cabinet! He traced your signature onto the trust paperwork! He was the one who called Attorney Sterling and told him you had authorized everything!"
"And you went along with it?" I asked.
"Dad promised me two hundred thousand dollars for my store if I took the paperwork to the notary!" Tessa confessed, her voice shaking violently. "He told me you were so rich you wouldn't even notice the money missing from your holding company! He said your legal team would just treat it as a tax write-off! Please, Mara! I'm thirty-two years old! I can't go to prison! I'll do whatever you want! I'll post a public apology video! I'll tell everyone the truth!"
"Did Mom know about this?" I asked.
"Mom helped him trace the signature under the lamp on the dining room table!" Tessa spilled everything, her loyalty to our parents vanishing completely under the weight of fear. "She held the paper steady while Dad drew the lines!"
I sat in silence for a long moment, listening to my sister breathe heavily through the phone. The image of my mother and father sitting together at the dining room table on Christmas night, carefully tracing my signature under a lamp like common criminals, filled me with a deep, sorrowful disgust.
"I have recorded this phone call, Tessa," I said clearly.
Tessa froze. "What?"
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"I am handing this recording directly to my attorney and the prosecuting state attorney tomorrow morning," I informed her. "If you want any chance of avoiding a state prison sentence, I suggest you call a criminal defense lawyer tonight and offer a full, written confession."
I hung up the phone before she could scream.
