Chapter 4: What My Sister Signed
Mark turned slowly.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Susan’s voice came through the phone.
“I know what a property document looks like, Mark.”
I pulled the deed folder from the cabinet beside the dining room.
The original papers were there, but the protective sleeve had been opened.
“What did you use our house to secure?”
Mark came down two steps.
“Linda, put that folder away.”
“Answer me.”
“It was a temporary business loan.”
“For a company I don’t own?”
His coworkers shifted in their chairs.
The laughter from dinner had vanished.
Mr.
Harrison held out his hand.
“May I see the deed?”
I gave it to him.
Mark came down the remaining stairs.
“You have no right to inspect our private documents.”
“You connected that property to invoices paid by my company.”
Tom inserted the memory card into his laptop.
A video opened, showing Mark and Susan outside the records office.
“Turn that off,” Mark said.
Tom clicked the volume icon.
Mark’s recorded voice filled the room.
“Sign where I marked it.
Linda already signed her pages.”
Susan appeared on-screen, staring down at the documents.
“Why isn’t she here?”
“She’s working.
Do you want help with your mortgage or not?”
Tom paused the video.
Susan sobbed through the phone.
“I should have called you.”
“Yes,” I said.
“You should have.”
The words came out harder than I intended.
Susan went silent.
Mark moved closer to me.
“Listen to your sister.
She took money because she always takes money.”
“Stop.”
“She borrowed from your mother.
She borrowed from us.
Now she wants to act innocent.”
“Stop talking about her and tell me where the loan money went.”
Mark lowered his voice.
“If this becomes official, Susan will be accused too.
Is that what you want?”
Susan gasped.
Mr.
Harrison stepped forward.
“You will not frighten her into silence.”
Mark ignored him.
“Linda, your sister signed as a witness.
Your name is on the company.
Your home computer submitted the invoices.
Think carefully before you turn this into something bigger.”
My knees weakened, and I caught the back of a chair.
“You used our home computer?”
“You leave it unlocked.”
Mr.
Harrison reached for my arm, but I shook my head.
“Twenty-eight years,” I said to Mark.
“Was any part of our marriage real?”
His mouth tightened.
“This has nothing to do with our marriage.”
“That is the most honest thing you’ve said tonight.”
My voice broke on the final word.
Tom hurried into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water.
“I don’t deserve to ask you to trust me,” he said.
“I laughed when Mark humiliated you.”
He placed the glass beside my hand.
“I was a coward.
But I copied every vendor record before he could erase them.”
Mark’s expression changed.
“You copied confidential files?”
“I copied evidence.”
“You’ll be dismissed before breakfast.”
Mr.
Harrison took the memory card from Tom.
“No, he won’t.”
A notification sounded on Mr.
Harrison’s phone.
He read it, then immediately called someone.
“Caleb, stop the remote deletion.”
We heard a man answer through the speaker.
“I’m trying, sir.
Someone logged in with administrative credentials two minutes ago.”
Mark reached into his pocket.
Tom pointed at him.
“His company phone.”
Mark pulled it out, but Mr.
Harrison seized his wrist.
“Give it to me.”
“You have no authority to search my property.”
The phone screen went dark.
Mr.
Harrison released him and looked at Tom.
“How much was erased?”
Tom refreshed the company database on his laptop.
One folder after another disappeared.
“The vendor records are going.”
Mr.
Harrison called Caleb again.
“Do we have backups?”
“The overnight server does.
But someone scheduled those for deletion too.”
Mark smiled for the first time since the folder had opened.
“You’re accusing me based on papers Linda signed and files that no longer exist.”
Tom stared at the empty screen.
Then another message appeared on my phone.
May you like
It contained only six words.
CHECK THE ACCOUNT UNDER YOUR MAIDEN NAME.
