Chapter 8 - The Hidden Debt
I crossed my arms, studying my former in-law with cautious skepticism. “Greg is a thirty-eight-year-old man who has made a career out of living beyond his means. Nothing he does surprises me anymore.”
“He didn't just live beyond his means, Clara,” Evelyn said, her voice dropping into a harsh whisper as she opened her leather handbag and pulled out a stack of certified bank notices. She slammed them down onto the coffee table. “He used my signature—forged it, actually—to secure a second mortgage on my winter condo in Boca Raton. He owes over one hundred and twenty thousand dollars to private loan sharks, and they are threatening to repossess my property.”
I stared at the papers, the numbers swimming before my eyes. “A loan shark? Greg is mixed up with usurers?”
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“He lost everything trying to flip commercial real estate last year,” Evelyn admitted, her hands trembling as she sank uninvited into the armchair. “He told Sarah it was a sure thing. Now they’re desperate. They didn't just want your cottage to live in, Clara. They wanted the deed so they could use it as collateral to bail Greg out of his gambling and debt crisis.”
The pieces clicked together with terrifying clarity. Sarah’s sudden move, the forged mail redirection, the stolen spare key—it wasn’t just a desperate bid for a free home. It was a calculated asset heist to save her husband from violent criminals.
