Chapter 4 - The Vicious Investigation
The detective watched the footage of Heather planting the money three times in a row.
He slowly put his handcuffs back into his belt and apologized for the massive misunderstanding.
"We are going to issue a warrant for your sister's arrest immediately," the detective promised before driving away.
Marcus and I stood on the lawn, finally taking a deep breath of relief as the police cruisers disappeared.
We had successfully dodged a bullet, but the war was far from over.
We drove back to the law office to pick up Mia and update Sterling on the terrifying morning.
Sterling warned us that my parents would be desperate now that their framing attempt had failed.
"They have unlimited access to cash right now, and they will use it to hire the sleaziest lawyers in the state," Sterling cautioned.
He was entirely correct.
By the time we woke up the next morning, my parents had launched a massive legal counterattack.
A process server knocked on our door at seven in the morning and handed me a thick stack of court documents.
My parents had filed a frivolous civil suit against us, claiming we had manipulated the security camera footage using artificial intelligence.
Worse, they had somehow convinced a corrupt judge to place a temporary freeze on all of our bank accounts.
I logged into my banking app and saw that our checking and savings accounts were completely locked.
We had absolutely no money to buy groceries, pay our mortgage, or retain Sterling for the upcoming trial.
I sat at the kitchen table, burying my face in my hands as the crushing weight of their cruelty finally hit me.
Mia walked into the kitchen, dressed in her old, faded pajamas, and saw the legal papers scattered across the table.
She did not cry, and she did not panic.
Instead, she walked over to her laptop and opened it with fierce determination.
"If they want to play dirty with technology, I can play too," Mia said quietly.
She explained that she remembered the password to my late grandmother’s old iCloud account from when she used to help her set up her iPad.
Mia typed rapidly, bypassing the old security questions with ease.
She opened my grandmother's archived email folders and started searching for any correspondence with her original estate lawyer.
"Mom, look at this," Mia gasped, pointing at a hidden draft saved just two days before my grandmother passed away.
I leaned over her shoulder and read the message, my heart skipping a beat.
My grandmother had explicitly written that she knew my parents were stealing from her pension to pay off Heather's debts.
She had attached a scanned copy of a secret, updated will that left the house entirely to me.
"She explicitly disinherited them," I whispered in shock.
The email also mentioned that the physical, notarized copy of this new will was locked in a safety deposit box at the downtown bank.
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Before we could celebrate this massive victory, my phone buzzed with an urgent news alert.
The university had just released a public statement officially expelling Mia and revoking her high school diploma due to a massive public smear campaign orchestrated by my parents.
