Chapter 12 - Dropping the First Document
The living room went dead silent as I slowly unlatched the heavy leather briefcase.
I didn't rush.
I let the mechanical click-clack of the locks echo loudly in the tense, suffocating air.
Margaret and Paige exchanged nervous glances,
their initial defensive fury starting to crack under the weight of my emotionless stare.
I reached inside the briefcase,
pulled out a thick stack of certified bank statements,
and dropped them squarely onto the coffee table.
The papers landed with a sharp, heavy thud.
"Read them,"
I commanded,
my voice a low, vibrating hum of controlled menace.
Paige stepped forward hesitantly,
her fingers trembling as she picked up the top page.
Her eyes scanned the printed rows of numbers and dates.
All the color drained from her face in an instant.
"This...
this is just regular banking data,"
she stammered,
though her voice lacked any real conviction.
"Look closer at the highlighted lines,
Paige,"
I instructed softly.
"Those are the exact wire transfers I sent from overseas every single month for four years.
Ninety-eight thousand,
four hundred dollars in total."
Margaret bristled,
stepping defensively in front of her daughter.
"And we used that money to maintain your estate!
Property taxes,
maintenance,
insurance—it all costs money,
Vance!"
"Is that right?"
I replied,
pulling out a second, even thicker document from the briefcase.
"Because according to the county property registry and the mortgage amortization schedules...
not a single cent of that money went to maintenance."
I slammed the property deed onto the table right beside the bank logs.
May you like
"You used my deployment pay to purchase this entire house outright...
and registered the title exclusively in Paige's name."
