Chapter 2: Whose Name Was on the Account
Lauren's mouth opened.
Then closed.
Richard waited.
"I told them I was the owner's representative," she finally said.
The room didn't react with noise.
It reacted with silence — the kind that meant everyone understood exactly what those words meant.
David stepped toward her.
"You told them what?"
"I was trying to help." Her voice had gone thin.
"This house is too big for her.
Everyone knows it.
I was just—"
"You forged her identity." Richard's voice was flat and precise.
"That is not helping."
Lauren turned to the relatives still standing frozen around the room.
"You all know this needed to happen eventually.
Someone had to do something."
No one moved to support her.
David's mother had not spoken since sitting down.
But now she looked up and asked one quiet question that cut through everything else in the room.
"Lauren…
who is the money going to?"
Lauren's eyes shifted — just slightly.
Just for a second.
But Richard caught it.
He looked back at the phone and kept scrolling.
Then he stopped again.
There was a second name on the transaction.
Not David's.
Not his mother's.
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Someone else had been set to receive the proceeds from the sale of a house they had no legal right to touch.
David reached for the phone.
