Chapter 3 - The Panicked Colony
By 1:00 p.m., the pressure inside my mother's house in Columbus had reached a boiling point. I knew this because Madison, Kyle's usually passive wife, called my office landline from a private number, her voice shaking violently with tears.
"Nora! Please, you have to answer me!" Madison sobbed into the receiver the moment I picked up. "The bank just froze Kyle's business operating accounts! He can't pay the contractor deposits for the sports bar! Two investigators from the bank's fraud unit just called your mother's house asking for statement verifications!"
"Hello, Madison," I said, leaning back in my office chair, my tone entirely professional and completely detached.
"Nora, please tell me this is a huge mistake!" Madison cried out. "Your mother is having a panic attack! Kyle is punching holes in the living room drywall! They said something about a forged document? Did... did you report them to the bank?!"
"I didn't report a 'mistake,' Madison," I replied smoothly. "I reported a crime. My mother and my brother forged my signature on a $385,000 commercial guarantee. They also used my late father's signature on a fraudulent corporate release."
There was an immediate, sharp gasp on the other end of the line. "Nora... Kyle said you agreed to help! He said you were just being dramatic at dinner yesterday because you were upset about what your mom said!"
"Kyle lied to you, Madison," I said. "Just like he's lied to every investor who ever handed him a dime. I explicitly refused to sign those papers at the dining table. They had already forged my name three weeks prior to that dinner."
"Oh my God..." Madison whispered, the reality suddenly dawning on her. "Oh my God... the bank officer said if the guarantor affidavit is voided, the loan is in immediate default, and the file goes straight to the District Attorney's financial crimes unit!"
"That sounds like an accurate description of banking law," I noted dryly.
"Nora, you can't do this to your own family!" Madison pleaded, her voice rising in volume. "Kyle has two small children! If he goes to prison, we lose our house! Your mother will lose her home!"
"My mother told me yesterday that she wished I had never been her daughter," I said, each word calculated, sharp, and cold as ice. "I am simply granting her Mother's Day wish. A stranger has no obligation to protect people who stole her identity and hid her father's inheritance for eleven years."
"Wait—what inheritance?!" Madison gasped.
Before she could ask another question, I heard the background sound of a door slamming violently open. My brother's harsh, screaming voice echoed through Madison's phone.
"Give me the damn phone, Madison!" Kyle roared in the background.
The phone rustled loudly, followed by heavy, ragged breathing as Kyle pulled the receiver to his ear.
"Nora, you crazy bitch!" Kyle screamed into the line, completely out of his mind with rage. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! You retract that fraud report right now, or I swear to God I will come down to Cincinnati and—"
"And do what, Kyle?" I interrupted, my voice dropping so low and dangerous that he immediately went silent. "Threaten me on a recorded business landline? Go ahead, finish that sentence. Give the prosecutor another felony count to add to the indictment."
Kyle choked on his own anger, breathing heavily into the receiver.
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"You have four hours before my attorney delivers the finalized forgery affidavit to the regional bank president," I told him flatly. "If you want to avoid being arrested in front of your children at your home, I suggest you and Mom meet me and my attorney at Rebecca Sloan's office downtown at 4:00 p.m. Bring every financial record tied to Bennett Properties LLC since 2015. If you are one minute late, I sign the criminal complaint."
I hung up the phone without waiting for a response, pressing the button to clear the line before he could utter another word.
