Chapter 10 - THE AGENT WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
I did not want to believe Dileia.
Marcus had spent eight months helping me buy Caldwell Street.
He knew my budget.
My savings.
My renovation plans.
He knew I wanted privacy.
He had been one of the few people I trusted completely.
Patricia told me not to confront him yet.
We reviewed Dileia’s drive first.
There it was.
An email from Gerald:
Marcus says she closed Friday. Duplex is cleaner than expected. She plans to hold long term, so we’ll need to create urgency later.
My stomach turned.
Marcus had sent details about my purchase to Gerald.
Why?
The answer sat in Queen City Equity’s records.
Marcus was entitled to a finder’s fee for any property the partnership successfully acquired.
He was not listed as an owner.
He did not need to be.
He simply fed them leads.
Caldwell Street became valuable because he knew me personally.
He knew I had renovated Unit B.
He knew what I paid.
He knew I had not refinanced.
He knew there was equity.
“Did he give them the key?”
Patricia shook her head.
“Looks like Dileia handled that herself.”
Small comfort.
I contacted Marcus’s brokerage through counsel.
Then I sat in my car for twenty minutes feeling stupid.
Again.
First family.
Now someone I paid to represent me.
Gretchen called while I was sitting there.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I laughed despite myself.
“Good?”
“If you said yes, I’d worry.”
She reminded me that trusting a licensed professional was not foolish.
Violating that trust was the other person’s choice.
I knew that logically.
Emotionally, I had work to do.
Then Patricia called.
Marcus had responded immediately through his attorney.
He admitted speaking with Gerald.
But claimed he never authorized any attempt to take Caldwell Street from me.
“He says Gerald asked about investment opportunities.”
“And Marcus handed him my private transaction information.”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Marcus says Dad contacted him directly after closing.
Apparently, Dad wanted to know whether I had used “family money” for the purchase.
Marcus said no.
Dad did not believe him.
So Marcus sent Dad proof of my closing funds to reassure him.
My private financial information.
Without my permission.
That document showed the source of my $67,000.
Six years of transfers from my personal savings accounts.
No family money.
Dad had known from the beginning that he contributed nothing.
Yet he still told Dileia the duplex was partly his.
He did not misunderstand.
He invented the claim.
Then Patricia found one more email.
Dad to Gerald:
Ranata earned the cash, yes, but she only has that career because we raised her. I consider the property part of what the family built.
I finally understood.
May you like
This had never been about one duplex.
Dad genuinely believed my independence belonged partly to him.
