Chapter 4 - THE BILL THAT BOUGHT MY BROTHER'S DREAM
Mason called me before I reached my car.
“What did you do?”
Apparently that was becoming the family greeting.
“What happened?”
“My car payment bounced.”
“That sounds like something between you and your lender.”
“You’ve always paid it.”
“And now I don’t.”
He went silent.
Then:
“Mom says you hired a lawyer.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
I almost told him everything.
Instead, I asked:
“Did you know Grandma left me a trust?”
Silence.
Not surprise.
Silence.
My stomach tightened.
“Mason.”
“I knew there was something.”
“How much?”
“I didn’t know.”
“What did Mom tell you?”
“That Grandma set aside money for both of us, but yours was larger because you were younger.”
“That’s false.”
“Okay.”
“No, not okay.”
I leaned against my car.
“Did you know your SUV came from my trust?”
“What?”
That reaction sounded real.
“Thirty-one thousand dollars.”
“No.”
“Your business?”
Another silence.
“What about my business?”
My brother had launched a fitness-supplement company at twenty-six.
It failed within eighteen months.
Dad claimed he had personally invested in it because “a father supports his son.”
Lydia’s records showed something different.
“Eighty-six thousand dollars came from my trust.”
Mason stopped speaking.
“I didn’t know.”
“You never asked where Dad got eighty-six thousand dollars?”
“He said he sold investments.”
“Whose investments?”
“I didn’t ask.”
That was the difference between us.
Mason never had to ask.
Help simply appeared.
For me, help always came with invoices.
He whispered:
“Briar, I swear I didn’t know.”
I wanted to believe him.
Part of me did.
Then I remembered Christmas dinner.
Finally.
Try not to take the good towels.
“You thought throwing me out was funny.”
He said nothing.
“That part you knew.”
“I was being an idiot.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
It was the first apology I could remember receiving from my brother without Mom forcing him.
I wasn’t ready to forgive him.
But I heard it.
That afternoon, the mortgage lender called Lydia.
They had begun reviewing the forged guarantee.
The $240,000 loan had supposedly been used for “home improvements.”
It wasn’t.
Bank records showed $110,000 moved into Dad’s private consulting company.
Another $90,000 went into Mom’s account.
The rest disappeared through transfers.
Then Lydia found one recipient.
MASON HALE FITNESS LLC.
Thirty-five thousand dollars.
I stared at the transfer.
Mason had received even more of the loan bearing my forged signature.
But when Lydia pulled the full transaction record, something unexpected appeared.
The money had not been requested by Mason.
The transfer authorization came from Dad.
May you like
And the memo line read:
KEEP HIM DEPENDENT.
