Chapter 7: The Confrontation at Mom's House
Dana advised me to wait.
I waited four days.
On the fifth day, Scott showed up at my apartment.
I opened the door.
He was in a jacket despite the heat, hands in his pockets, jaw set in the expression I had known since childhood — the one that meant he had already decided how the conversation would go.
"We need to talk," he said.
"Come in."
He sat on the edge of my couch.
Didn't take off the jacket.
"I need you to tell Dana to stand down," he said.
"The credit union is willing to restructure if there's no outside legal pressure.
I can handle this."
"With what money, Scott?"
"That's my problem."
"You made it my problem when you put my name on a fraudulent document."
"It wasn't fraudulent." His voice tightened.
"Dad always said that house would be split between us.
You know that."
"Dad left it to me.
In a will.
Signed and filed."
"He was sick.
He didn't know what he was—"
"Don't." I leaned forward.
"Don't say Dad wasn't competent.
Not to me."
He looked away.
A muscle moved in his jaw.
"I needed the money," he said.
"I was in a situation I couldn't get out of any other way."
"I know about Darren Fosse."
His head came up fast.
"I know about the invoices.
The side arrangement.
The leverage he had over you." I held his gaze.
"You borrowed against my house to cover up something you'd been doing for three years.
And you got Mom to sign a document to make it look legitimate."
"Mom understood—"
"Mom thought it was a formality.
She told me that herself.
You lied to her too."
He stood up.
"You don't know everything."
"Then tell me what I'm missing."
He moved toward the door.
Hand on the frame.
"If you push this," he said, "it goes places none of us want it to go.
The credit union, the prosecutor — that's not just me going down.
That's Mom's name on that letter.
That's Renee getting dragged in.
That's the whole family."
"You should have thought about the whole family before you walked into a notary's office."
He turned.
His face had changed — the set jaw gone, something rawer underneath.
"I was desperate, Erica.
I had nowhere else to go."
"You could have come to me."
The words landed between us.
He didn't answer them.
"You could have called me," I said.
"You could have told me the truth and asked for help.
I would have listened.
I might even have helped.
But you didn't do that.
You took it.
You forged it.
And you let Mom sign her name to a lie."
He left without another word.
The door closed.
I sat back down.
My phone was already lit up with a text from Dana.
May you like
*"Credit union just filed.
Scott has 30 days to respond."*
