Chapter 8 - They Were Selling the House
Gwendolyn planned to sell the house eleven days after throwing me out.
Chloe stared at the sales contract.
“You said the room was mine.”
Gwendolyn folded her arms.
“It was going to be yours until we moved.”
“Moved where?”
“A better house.”
“With what money?”
Gwendolyn looked at me instead.
That told Chloe everything.
The contract required clear title.
My sixty-percent ownership made the sale impossible.
Unless my signature appeared again.
Maya checked the closing packet.
There it was.
A seller authorization signed PAIGE MORGAN.
Forged.
Again.
The title company had not yet verified it.
We notified them.
Closing froze.
Gwendolyn exploded.
She called me seventeen times.
Then she came to my hillside house.
I watched her on the camera.
“Open this door!”
Gwendolyn walked into my living room and looked around.
“This is what you’ve been hiding?”
“I wasn’t hiding. You never asked.”
“You sat in our house acting like you needed us.”
“I stayed because Dad lived there.”
Then she pointed at me.
“You think buying some glass box on a hill makes you better than us?”
“No.”
“You’re destroying Chloe.”
“No.”
“You’re destroying your father.”
“No.”
Her voice rose.
“You froze the loan. You stopped the sale. You’re trying to steal the rentals.”
“They were bought with my trust money.”
“Your mother left plenty.”
“For me.”
“This family sacrificed for you.”
I stared at her.
“What did you sacrifice?”
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Then she changed tactics.
Tears.
“Samuel will lose everything.”
“He can account for everything.”
“You’d sue your own father?”
“If he stole from my trust, yes.”
Her face became hard again.
“Then you should know he isn’t the only one who signed your name.”
I went still.
“What does that mean?”
She smiled.
“Ask Chloe.”
After Gwendolyn left, Chloe called me.
She was crying so hard I could barely understand her.
“Paige, Mom made me sign something when I was sixteen.”
“What?”
“She said it was for a school account.”
“Whose name did you sign?”
Silence.
May you like
Then:
“Yours.”
