Chapter 2 - The Woman Across the Street
I drove for twenty minutes before realizing I had no destination.
Hotels required money.
Friends required explanations.
And explanations required admitting that my own family had emptied my bank account and thrown me out.
I pulled into a twenty-four-hour grocery store parking lot.
Then my phone rang.
Mrs. Linda.
The neighbor from across the street.
I almost didn’t answer.
“Hello?”
“Laura?”
Her voice sounded nervous.
“Yes.”
“Are you safe?”
I looked around the empty parking lot.
“I think so.”
There was a long silence.
“I saw what happened.”
My stomach tightened.
“I know.”
“No. I mean before tonight.”
I sat up.
“What do you mean?”
“I saw Jason using your car last week.”
“That’s not unusual.”
“He wasn’t driving it.”
I waited.
“He was sitting inside it for almost twenty minutes. Then your mother came outside carrying a folder.”
“What kind of folder?”
“Blue. Thick.”
My pulse quickened.
Mom kept our important family documents in blue folders.
Birth certificates.
Tax records.
Insurance paperwork.
Old bank statements.
“I should’ve said something,” Linda whispered. “I thought maybe you knew.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“Linda, did you see anything else?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“Two days ago, Jason came home with your father. They were celebrating.”
“Celebrating what?”
“I don’t know. But Jason said something while they were getting out of the car.”
“What?”
She hesitated.
“He said, ‘Once the transfer clears, she can’t do anything.’”
The grocery-store lights blurred through my windshield.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
I thanked her.
Before hanging up, she said, “Laura, your mother came across the street after you left.”
My hand stopped.
“What did she want?”
“She asked whether I had seen anything.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I was taking out the trash.”
I exhaled.
Linda lowered her voice.
“I don’t think she believed me.”
The next morning, I met Rachel at the bank.
She was younger than I expected, maybe thirty-five, wearing a dark blazer and an expression that told me she had seen families destroy each other over money before.
She printed the transactions.
Three cash withdrawals.
One transfer.
Then she pointed at the destination.
“Do you recognize this?”
Horizon Auto Group LLC.
I stared at it.
“No.”
Rachel turned her monitor toward me.
“The account was opened six weeks ago.”
“By who?”
“I’m limited in what I can disclose until the investigation proceeds.”
“But you know.”
She looked at me carefully.
“Yes.”
“Is it Jason?”
She didn’t answer.
She didn’t need to.
I leaned back.
“What was he buying?”
Rachel folded her hands.
“That’s what we’re trying to determine.”
My phone rang.
Mom.
I declined it.
She called again.
Declined.
Then a voicemail appeared.
I played it.
“Laura, sweetheart, please stop this nonsense. Your brother made one mistake. You don’t destroy your family over money.”
Rachel’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
I saved the voicemail.
Then another message arrived.
This one from Dad.
COME HOME. WE CAN WORK SOMETHING OUT.
For twenty-nine years, those words would have worked.
Come home.
Be reasonable.
Don’t make trouble.
Forgive Jason.
I looked at Rachel.
“What do I need to sign?”
May you like
She slid the fraud affidavit toward me.
I picked up the pen.
