Chapter 2 - The Midnight Betrayal
Holt closed the hospital door behind him, his eyes completely ignoring Juny as she slept.
He walked straight toward me, pulling a stack of crisp legal documents from his expensive briefcase.
"I am glad you are still awake," Holt whispered, though his tone held no actual sympathy.
"What are you doing here in the middle of the night, Holt?" I demanded quietly.
He flashed a charming, fake smile that he usually reserved for his wealthy real estate clients.
"Your mother needs you to sign these routine family tax forms for the estate," he explained smoothly.
He handed me a silver pen and tapped a blank signature line at the bottom of the page.
I looked down at the paper, recognizing the complex legal jargon from my years working as a paralegal.
It was not a tax form at all.
It was a comprehensive quitclaim deed, designed to surrender any potential rights I had to the Vermont property.
"You are trying to sell the lake house," I stated, staring directly into his deceitful eyes.
Holt's fake smile vanished instantly, replaced by a cold and threatening glare.
"The maintenance is too expensive, and your mother wants to liquidate the asset," he lied without hesitation.
"The house does not belong to my mother, and it certainly does not belong to you," I shot back.
I shoved the papers back into his chest, refusing to touch the silver pen he offered.
Holt grabbed my wrist with terrifying speed, his grip bruising my skin.
"You are going to sign this paper tonight, or I swear you will regret it," he hissed.
I ripped my arm away and slammed my hand directly onto the emergency nurse call button.
A loud alarm began blaring in the hallway, echoing through the quiet intensive care unit.
Holt panicked, scrambling to gather his scattered documents from the sterile hospital floor.
"You are making a massive mistake," he threatened before sprinting out the door.
Two nurses rushed into the room a second later, asking if Juny was experiencing a medical emergency.
I assured them we were fine and asked them to call hospital security to ban Holt from the premises.
Once the room was quiet again, I pulled out my phone and dialed Miss Castellano.
"They are trying to push through a fraudulent sale of the property tomorrow morning," I told the attorney.
Miss Castellano sighed deeply on the other end of the line, her keyboard clicking rapidly.
"I just pulled the county public records to check for any pending escrow accounts," she said.
Her voice suddenly dropped to a horrifying whisper.
"Eleanor already submitted a preliminary sale agreement to the county clerk three months ago."
I felt the air completely leave my lungs.
"But how could she do that without my signature?" I asked in pure disbelief.
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"She didn't," Miss Castellano replied grimly.
"She used a forged power of attorney, and the bank has already transferred two million dollars into her private account."
