Chapter 10 - The Unseen Witness
Justin reached out with shaking fingers, taking the top corner of the legal papers as if the document were about to bite him. His eyes raced across the legal jargon, scanning the account numbers and the court seal.
"You... you filed an injunction?" Justin stammered, looking up at me with genuine shock, as if it had never once occurred to him that I might fight back. "Chloe, we could have talked about this! We didn't need to involve lawyers!"
"We stopped talking the moment you signed a real estate contract with your aunt's name on our joint savings," I replied, my voice hard and steady.
Before Justin could formulate a response, Virginia snatched the papers out of his hands, her eyes scanning the pages with aristocratic disdain before letting out a sharp, mocking laugh.
"A lawyer? Really, Chloe? You think a piece of paper from some local magistrate is going to stop our family from protecting Justin?" Virginia sneered, stepping closer, poking a manicured finger toward my chest. "My son is done supporting a cold, unfeeling woman who treats him like an afterthought. He’s coming back to Bakersfield with us, and your little courtroom tantrum isn't going to change—"
"Enough, Mom," Justin muttered, his voice surprisingly firm as he gently pulled his mother's arm down. He looked at me, the frantic panic in his eyes replaced by a heavy, defeated realization. "Where... where do we go from here, Chloe?"
"You go back to your lawyer," I said, turning on my heel toward the elevator. "Because when we meet next, it won't be in a hotel room."
I walked down the hallway, the sound of my heels retreating the only noise in the quiet corridor, leaving them standing in the doorway of Room 412.
When I reached the elevator and pressed the down button, I finally let out the breath I had been holding for the last forty-eight hours. The heavy weight of the past month was lifting, replaced by the crisp, exhilarating freedom of a new beginning.
Then, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
May you like
I pulled it out and looked at the screen. It wasn't Justin. It was an unknown local number with a text message that stopped my heart cold:
I saw what your in-laws did with the credit union transfer. If you want to know where the rest of the forty-five thousand really went, meet me at the lobby coffee shop in five minutes. Come alone.
