Chapter 2
The Paper Trail of Wolves
Amanda was the first to try and recover her composure. She crossed her arms, her gold bracelets clinking loudly in the tense kitchen silence. "Well, look who finally decided to show up and play the hero," she scoffed, though her voice lacked its usual confidence. "You leave your mother here for nearly a year, David. We’re the ones who have been dealing with her medical bills and her upkeep. If we didn't step in, this house would have been repossessed."
"Repossessed?" I looked at Richard, my older brother, the man who had promised me on the tarmac before I deployed that he would check on our mother twice a week. "I set up an automatic allotment from my military pay. Five thousand dollars a month went directly into the joint household account to cover the mortgage and Ma’s medication. Where did that money go, Richard?"
Richard looked at Sloane, then back at me, his face turning an ugly, mottled red. "The market took a hit, David. Inflation. Everything got expensive. We had to redirect some funds into investments to keep the family capital afloat."
"Investments?" My mother spoke up from the corner, her voice trembling but clear. "He means his new truck, David. And Amanda’s jewelry. They told me your bank accounts were frozen by the military because of a bureaucratic error. They told me if I didn't sign the power of attorney over to Richard, the electricity would be shut off."
A cold, dark anger settled deep into my gut. In the military, you learn to read an ambush before the first shot is fired. This wasn't an accidental misunderstanding; it was a coordinated, systematic strip-mining of my life and my mother's security by the people I shared blood with.
"Show me the paperwork," I said, extending my hand toward Richard.
"It's corporate business, David," Richard said, trying to bolster his courage by stepping closer to me. He was taller than me, heavier, but he had spent his life behind a desk while I had spent mine carrying eighty pounds of gear through triple-digit heat. "You're a soldier. You handle the guns; I handle the family finances. We did what was necessary to protect the property."
"I am the sole owner of this deed, Richard. The house belonged to our father, and he left it to me because he knew exactly what kind of man you were," I said, stepping into his personal space. The scent of gunpowder and dried sweat from my flight was still on my uniform, and Richard flinched away from it. "I’m going to ask you one more time. Show me the paperwork, or I will have the Military Police and the local precinct here within five minutes to arrest all three of you for elder abuse and grand larceny."
Sloane let out a small sob, covering her face with her hands. "Richard, just give it to him. He’s going to ruin everything."
Richard reached into his leather briefcase on the counter, his hands shaking so violently he could barely open the latch. He pulled out a thick blue folder and threw it onto the kitchen island.
I picked it up and flipped through the pages. It was worse than I thought. They hadn't just taken the paychecks. They had used a forged signature to grant Richard durable power of attorney over my mother’s medical decisions, and they had taken out a second mortgage on the house to fund a shell corporation registered in Richard’s name.
"You didn't just steal my money," I said, looking up from the pages. "You leveraged the roof over our mother’s head."
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"It’s legal, David!" Amanda shouted, her voice shrill. "The paperwork is notarized! You can't just walk back in here with your boots on and throw us out! We live here now!"
"We’ll see about that," I said, closing the folder and tucking it securely under my arm. "Ma, get your purse. We're leaving."
