Chapter 3 - Breakfast With Liars
At eight the next morning, Brandon arrived at the Harbor Hotel carrying roses.
Charlotte met him in the lobby while Naomi watched from a table across the room. Brandon looked exhausted, offended and frightened in equal measure.
“You froze everything,” he said.
“I froze my money.”
“Our money.”
“Then tell me one account funded by your salary.”
His jaw tightened. For four years, Brandon had described himself as a development consultant. Charlotte had never asked why his consulting income rarely appeared. She had accepted his explanations because marriage had trained her to interpret suspicion as cruelty.
He offered the roses. She did not take them.
“Mom behaved badly with Skylar,” he said. “I told her so.”
“After I left?”
“That isn’t the point.”
“It is the entire point.”
Brandon lowered his voice. “The residence project would make us rich. Hailey found investors. Mom knows wealthy retirees. Leonard has a hospitality team. We only needed the house as collateral until construction started.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I used the authorization you signed years ago.”
Charlotte remembered a limited power of attorney created before a surgery, valid for thirty days and expressly excluding trust property.
“That authorization expired eight years ago.”
“The lender accepted it.”
“Which lender?”
Brandon’s eyes shifted. “You’re turning a family disagreement into a crime.”
“No. The signatures did that.”
He leaned closer. “If you embarrass my mother publicly, our marriage is over.”
Charlotte almost laughed. “You fed our daughter instant soup while using my card for king crab, forged her name, pledged my home and came here worried about your mother’s embarrassment.”
For one second, Brandon’s mask disappeared.
“You think the house is yours because your father handed it to you,” he said. “But I gave ten years to you. I deserve half.”
“File for divorce and ask a judge.”
He stepped back. The roses fell to the marble floor.
“You have until noon to restore the transfer,” he said. “If the deposit fails, everyone loses.”
“Everyone who planned to steal from me.”
He left without asking to see Skylar.
Naomi joined Charlotte. “He admitted using an expired authorization and threatened you over the transfer. The lobby cameras captured it.”
Charlotte’s phone buzzed. Evelyn had sent a file through an encrypted service. It contained payment instructions for $5.1 million of the proposed loan. The recipient was Blue Heron Advisory, owned by Brandon.
Another $700,000 was directed to Bell Strategic Design. The remaining amount was divided among Hailey, Gertrude and Leonard as development fees.
There was also a schedule titled EXIT.
On the Monday after funding, Brandon planned to fly to Lisbon.
Skylar came from the elevator and saw the roses on the floor.
“Did Dad leave those?”
“Yes.”
“Is he sorry?”
May you like
Charlotte looked through the glass doors as Brandon’s car disappeared.
“Not yet,” she said.
