Janet closed her folder with a decisive snap. “I’ll be closing this case as unfounded,” she said. “And I’ll be documenting the source.”
When she left, I stood on my deck watching the Patterson girls read in deck chairs, peaceful and unbothered.
Brandon had crossed a line that couldn’t be uncrossed.
It was time to stop playing defense.
I called Mike Santos.
“Go deeper,” I told him. “Full financial forensics on Brandon and Melissa. Legal history. Employment verification. Everything.”
Two days later, Mike delivered a thick manila envelope that made my stomach drop.
Brandon’s business was behind on rent and facing eviction. Melissa had maxed out four credit cards funding their lifestyle. They’d applied for a home equity loan using projected inheritance from my estate as “future assurance.”
They were counting on my death or incapacitation.
And then came the real bombshell: six months earlier, Brandon had visited three elder law attorneys asking about conservatorship proceedings for a parent with “declining judgment.”
He’d been planning to take control of me before he even saw the beach house.
I called Sarah Chen immediately.