Chapter 3: The Money Was Already Gone
I called the bank before Derek could call again.
A woman named Elaine Porter asked me to come in with identification and samples of my signature.
“Do not contact your brother about this meeting,” she said.
“He already knows I saw the application.”
“Then come now.”
Elaine met me in a glass office beside the main lobby.
She placed the loan application between us but kept one hand on it.
“Is this your signature?”
“No.”
“Did you authorize Derek to use your income?”
“No.”
“Did you attend a signing three weeks ago?”
“I was working that day.”
Elaine turned to the final page.
“This says you appeared in person.”
“Who witnessed it?”
“A notary named Martin Cole.”
I recognized the name immediately.
“Martin is Derek’s friend.
They played football together in school.”
Elaine’s mouth tightened.
“There is something else.
Your mother signed an affidavit stating that you lived at the property and had agreed to guarantee the loan.”
The office door opened before I could answer.
Derek marched in, with Mom hurrying behind him.
“There she is,” Derek said.
“Tell her this is a family misunderstanding.”
Elaine stood.
“This is a private appointment.”
“I’m named on the loan.”
“And she is disputing her signature.”
Derek looked at me.
“You said you’d always help Mom.”
“I said I would help her.
I never said you could sign my name.”
“Lower your voice.”
“You walked into my bank meeting, Derek.”
Mom gripped her purse with both hands.
“Please, can we talk at home?”
“You threw me out of that home.”
“I was upset.”
“No, Mom.
You planned it.
I read the messages.”
Derek leaned over Elaine’s desk.
“She’s trying to punish us because she’s jealous.”
“Jealous of what?”
“My family.
My children.
The fact that Mom needs me now.”
Elaine pulled the application away from him.
“Mr.
Lawson, step back from my desk.”
He straightened and forced a smile.
“No one lost anything.
Cancel the application, and we’ll walk away.”
Elaine looked directly at him.
“The application cannot simply be canceled.”
Mom’s purse slipped from her hands.
“Why not?”
“Because the loan was approved eleven days ago.”
I stared at Derek.
“You told her it was still being processed.”
He pointed at Elaine.
“She doesn’t understand the arrangement.”
Elaine pressed a key on her computer.
“Eighty-five thousand dollars was released two days after approval.”
Mom grabbed the edge of the desk.
“Eighty-five thousand?”
“You said it was twenty,” I told Derek.
“I had expenses.”
“What expenses?”
“My children needed stability.”
“They already had a home.”
Derek’s face hardened.
“You don’t know anything about raising children.”
“And you don’t know anything about earning the money you used.”
Elaine raised one hand.
“The funds were transferred to a business account belonging to Northline Property Solutions.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Mom said.
Derek moved toward the door.
“We’re finished here.”
Elaine blocked his path without touching him.
“The account was opened six weeks ago.
You are listed as its manager.”
“So?”
“The secondary contact is your mother.”
Mom slowly shook her head.
“I never opened a business account.”
Elaine turned her screen toward us.
“Then I suggest you both look at the authorization photograph.”
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The picture showed Derek at a bank counter, smiling beside someone wearing Mom’s coat and holding Mom’s identification.
The woman in the photograph was not my mother.
