Chapter 7: The Truth at the Table
By noon the next day, we were sitting in a conference room at the bank.
Emily was resting at Mark’s sister’s house, and Mark sat beside me.
Across the table, Glen had brought an attorney named Mr.
Price.
Helen, the bank manager, placed the loan application between us.
“Mrs.
Mercer disputes this signature and the transfer.”
Glen folded his hands.
“My wife approved both and changed her mind after an argument.”
“You forged my name,” I said.
“You shared your passwords.”
“That does not give you permission to impersonate me.”
Mr.
Price slid a proposal toward me.
“Mr.
Mercer will withdraw his custody petition if you accept the sale and waive any claim to the transferred funds.”
Mark stared at him.
“So he wants her house and her savings.”
“This discussion does not involve you,” Mr.
Price replied.
“It involved me when Glen used my presence to stage evidence.”
Glen leaned back.
“Mark has always wanted to play hero.”
“No,” Mark said.
“I just finally saw who you are.”
The door opened, and Vanessa entered with a laptop and a thick envelope.
Glen stood.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“You submitted the disputed application through my company,” she said.
“That makes it my responsibility.”
“You approved it.”
“Because you sent me a video of Laura giving consent.”
My stomach tightened.
Glen smiled at me.
“There it is.”
Vanessa opened her laptop.
“The video shows Laura saying, ‘Yes, go ahead.’ But the original file contains the full conversation.”
She pressed play.
My voice came through the speakers.
“Yes, go ahead and order Emily’s birthday present.
Just don’t tell her.”
A cut followed.
Then Glen’s voice asked:
“Are you giving me permission to submit the application?”
The edited version jumped directly to my words: “Yes, go ahead.”
Helen removed her glasses.
“Mr.
Mercer, did you edit this recording?”
“It was a misunderstanding.”
Vanessa opened the envelope.
“These are his emails telling me how to label the file.
These are the messages in which he promised the property would be vacant by Tuesday.”
Glen turned on her.
“You were going to earn commission from the sale.”
“And I’m surrendering that commission and my license review starts this afternoon.”
“You’ll ruin yourself.”
“I’d rather answer for my mistake than help you steal Laura’s home.”
Helen pushed a red button on the desk phone.
“Please ask our security officer to come in.”
Mr.
Price whispered to Glen, but Glen shoved his chair back.
“You’re all acting as if Laura is helpless,” he said.
“She knew our finances were collapsing.”
“What finances?” I demanded.
He pulled a statement from his briefcase and threw it onto the table.
Payments to an online betting company covered six pages.
“You lost our savings?” I asked.
“I was going to replace it after the house sold.”
“You gambled Emily’s college fund.”
“I had a system.”
Mark gave a bitter laugh.
“Your system was stealing from your child.”
Glen pointed at me.
“If I go down, so does she.
The debt is in both our names.”
Helen examined the account numbers.
“No,” she said.
“These credit lines were opened using Mrs.
Mercer’s identity without her verified consent.”
The security officer entered with a woman wearing a detective’s badge.
Glen backed toward the door.
The detective held out her hand.
“Mr.
Mercer, please place your phone on the table.”
He looked directly at me.
“You wanted to humiliate me over a football game,” he said.
“Now Emily will know you destroyed her father.”
I stood.
“No, Glen.
She’ll know her mother refused to let him destroy her future.”
The detective picked up his phone.
May you like
Then she opened the bank records and said, “Mr.
Mercer, we need to discuss four more accounts opened in your wife’s name.”
