Chapter 2 - THE LOAN AGAINST MY HOUSE
For several seconds, nobody moved.
I picked up the document.
My hands were shaking so badly that the paper rattled.
“Why is my house listed as collateral for your loan?”
Chloe looked toward Dad.
That was all I needed to see.
He knew.
“You knew about this?”
Dad folded his arms.
“Lower your voice.”
“I am standing in my own kitchen holding paperwork where my sister is trying to borrow money against my house.”
“It was only preliminary.”
“Preliminary?”
Mom stepped forward.
“Evelyn, listen before you get upset.”
“I am already upset.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen without your signature.”
Nora looked at her.
“That’s not what the form says.”
Everyone turned toward my daughter.
She pointed at the lower section.
A box had been checked.
PROPERTY OWNER CONSENT DOCUMENTATION PENDING.
The lender had already begun processing.
I looked at Chloe.
“How much?”
She stared at the floor.
“How much money are you trying to borrow?”
“Eighty thousand.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“Why?”
No answer.
Dad spoke.
“She had some expenses.”
“Eighty thousand dollars of expenses?”
“She invested in her future.”
“What does that even mean?”
Chloe finally snapped.
“I needed money, okay?”
“For what?”
“Tuition. Rent. Research. Life.”
Nora quietly said:
“And the credit cards.”
Chloe spun toward her.
“What else did you look at?”
Nora shrugged.
“You left your laptop signed into your email at Grandma’s house last weekend.”
Mom looked horrified.
“Nora!”
My daughter immediately said:
“I know I shouldn’t have read it.”
I looked at her.
“We’ll talk about that later.”
Then I faced Chloe.
“What credit cards?”
She sat down.
Her shoulders sagged.
For the first time, she didn’t look smug.
She looked scared.
“Forty-two thousand.”
Mom gasped.
Dad closed his eyes.
I stared.
“How?”
“I had to maintain appearances.”
That sentence was so absurd I thought I had misheard.
“What appearances?”
“At school. Conferences. Networking.”
“So you spent forty-two thousand dollars pretending to be successful?”
“You don’t understand.”
“No. I understand exactly.”
Her face reddened.
“You’ve always been comfortable being ordinary.”
The words landed hard.
Then something inside me went cold.
“Ordinary paid off this house.”
Chloe looked away.
Dad slammed his palm on the counter.
“Enough.”
I turned.
“No. Not enough. Not even close.”
He pointed at the paperwork.
“The transfer solves the problem.”
“For who?”
“For the family.”
I stared at him.
“You mean Chloe.”
“She has the highest potential.”
“And I’m supposed to give up ten years of work because she ran up debt pretending she had a life she couldn’t afford?”
Dad’s expression hardened.
“This is bigger than debt.”
Chloe whispered:
“Dad.”
Again.
A warning.
I noticed.
“What else happened?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at Nora.
She was already opening another file.
Chloe stood suddenly.
“Turn that off.”
Nora looked at me.
“Mom?”
“Show me.”
The television displayed an email from the university.
SUBJECT: NOTICE OF ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT REVIEW.
My chest tightened.
The message had been sent eight months earlier.
Chloe Bennett was under formal investigation for alleged research misconduct.
Fabricated participant data.
Improper use of grant funds.
Possible plagiarism.
Mom whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Chloe started crying.
Dad turned toward me.
“Now you see why we need to protect her.”
I could barely believe him.
“You knew?”
He said nothing.
“How long?”
“Three months.”
“And your solution was to give her my house?”
“She needs stability.”
I stared at him.
Then Nora spoke softly.
“There’s more.”
Chloe looked terrified.
Nora clicked on the final page.
It wasn’t from the university.
It was from an attorney.
And at the bottom was a settlement demand for $96,000.
But the complainant’s name made Dad go completely pale.
Thomas Bennett.
May you like
My father’s younger brother.
The uncle we had been told was dead.
