Chapter 4 - The Glovebox Secret
I sprinted up the porch steps with the heavy stack of papers clutched in my hands.
"Mom, Ray, look at this," I gasped, spreading the documents across the patio table.
Ray leaned over, scanning the dense legal jargon with tired, strained eyes.
"He is using your social security number to run a massive shell corporation," Ray realized, his voice trembling.
"If the state investigates this aggressive foreclosure, Richard's name is nowhere on the paperwork."
My mother covered her mouth in absolute horror.
"He is framing a seventeen-year-old boy for his predatory lending practices," she whispered.
I felt incredibly sick to my stomach.
If I accepted the car and the trust fund, I was legally agreeing to be his corporate scapegoat.
"We have to take this straight to the police," I decided, reaching for my phone.
Before I could dial the numbers, my phone buzzed violently with an incoming text message from an unknown number.
It was an audio file sent directly to my device.
I hesitated for a second before pressing play.
Richard's voice filled the quiet porch, coming clearly from the phone's speaker.
"I want to see my son, Sarah," the recorded version of Richard pleaded.
Then, my mother's voice answered on the recording, sounding harsh and extremely demanding.
"You can see him when you wire fifty thousand dollars into my personal account, Richard."
The recording clicked and ended abruptly.
I looked up slowly, staring directly at my mother.
She was trembling completely, her face drained of absolutely every ounce of color.
"He cut the tape," Mom cried out frantically.
"Leo, you have to believe me, he edited that conversation to change the context entirely."
Ray wrapped a protective arm tightly around my mother's shoulders.
"I believe you, Sarah," Ray said without a single second of hesitation.
Another text message popped up on my screen from the same unknown number.
The text read, "If you go to the police about the corporation, I take this tape to the local news and ruin her life."
I stared at the glowing screen, realizing we were completely trapped in his web.
Then, a sudden, loud notification pinged from Ray's cell phone inside his pocket.
May you like
Ray pulled it out, and his expression instantly turned to one of pure terror.
"He just froze our joint bank account," Ray whispered into the cool evening air.
