Chapter 2 - The Stolen Future
I stared at the glowing screen of my phone in absolute disbelief.
The notification clearly stated that twenty thousand dollars had just been wired to an offshore account.
Frank was not just a silent, cowardly bystander in my mother's cruel game.
He was actively trying to steal my daughter's entire future while we were locked out of the house.
I immediately called the fraud department of my bank to freeze the remaining assets.
The representative informed me that the transfer had been authorized using my exact security credentials.
Someone had hacked into my personal computer on the home network before changing the physical locks.
I thanked the representative and hung up, my hands shaking with a mixture of rage and adrenaline.
I looked over at Lily, who was sleeping peacefully under the heavy hotel comforter.
I promised myself right then that I would completely destroy the people who had hurt her.
At seven o'clock the next morning, I called Arthur Sterling, the brilliant attorney who managed my father's estate.
I quickly explained the lockout, the changed keys, and the stolen college funds.
Arthur listened quietly, his silence speaking volumes about how seriously he took the situation.
He reminded me that Evelyn only had the right to live in the house as a courtesy of the trust.
Because she had deliberately excluded a minor beneficiary, she had instantly voided her own residency agreement.
I authorized Arthur to draft the harshest possible eviction notice immediately.
While he worked on the legal paperwork, I asked him to investigate Frank's recent financial activities.
Arthur promised to use his private investigative resources to track the stolen twenty thousand dollars.
I spent the rest of the morning buying Lily new school clothes and dropping her off at her classroom.
I told her that everything was going to be fine and that we were simply taking a brief vacation.
When I returned to the hotel room, my phone rang with a call from Arthur.
His voice sounded incredibly tense.
He told me that he had tracked the wire transfer to a corporate holding company in the Cayman Islands.
That company was completely owned by a real estate development firm located right here in Portland.
I asked him why Frank would send my daughter's money to a local real estate developer.
Arthur took a deep breath before answering.
He explained that Evelyn and Frank were not just trying to steal my cash.
They had secretly signed an illegal contract to demolish my father's historic house and sell the empty land.
The twenty thousand dollars was intended to pay the corrupt developer's initial demolition retainer fee.
I felt a cold shiver run down my spine as the true scale of their betrayal became clear.
They wanted to completely erase my father's legacy and leave me with absolutely nothing.
Arthur warned me that we had to stop them before they brought heavy machinery onto the property.
I asked him what our next immediate step should be.
He told me that we needed to serve them with the certified suspension notice today.
But before we could finalize the plan, Arthur received a secondary alert on his computer.
He gasped softly into the phone receiver.
May you like
I demanded to know what was wrong.
Arthur revealed that Frank had just scheduled a clandestine appraisal of the property for this exact afternoon.
