Chapter 9 - THE MISSING SISTER
Karla didn’t answer for the rest of the day.
By evening, I was angry enough to hate her and worried enough to drive to her condo.
Nathan told me not to go alone.
So Mrs. Gable watched Sophia while Nathan met me there.
Karla’s front door was unlocked.
The apartment looked wrong.
Drawers open.
Couch cushions on the floor.
A lamp knocked over.
“Karla?”
Nothing.
Nathan held out an arm.
“Don’t touch anything.”
Then we heard crying from the bedroom.
Karla sat on the floor beside the bed.
Her lip was split.
My anger vanished.
“Oh my God.”
She looked at me.
“Don’t.”
“Who did this?”
She laughed through tears.
“Who do you think?”
“Mom?”
“No.”
“Brandon?”
She nodded.
Her boyfriend.
“He wanted the documents.”
“What documents?”
“The failed loan application.”
Nathan crouched.
“Why would he care about those?”
Karla wiped blood from her mouth.
“Because it wasn’t just for me.”
I stared.
“What?”
She looked at Nathan.
“Brandon set it up.”
The forty thousand dollars hadn’t been for a business investment.
It was to cover debts he owed to people from a failed investment scheme.
He had convinced Karla they could borrow against “the family apartment.”
Mom had agreed.
They forged my consent.
Again.
Only the lender’s video verification requirement stopped them.
“Where’s Brandon now?” Nathan asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you call the police?”
Karla shook her head.
“Why?”
“Because he has copies.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
My chest tightened.
Karla looked at me.
“Mom kept files on everyone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Bank statements. Signatures. IDs. Tax documents.”
“Why?”
“Because she said family survives by being prepared.”
I almost laughed.
Prepared apparently meant prepared to impersonate each other.
Karla continued.
“Mom had a copy of your divorce papers. Your old driver’s license. Your tax forms. Everything.”
I felt sick.
“Where?”
“She kept a red folder in the hall cabinet.”
I remembered it.
Mom never let anyone touch that cabinet.
Nathan stood.
“We need law enforcement involved now.”
Karla grabbed his arm.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Your boyfriend assaulted you and may possess identity documents belonging to Laura. This is past the point of family negotiation.”
She started crying again.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at her.
“For what?”
“All of it.”
I wanted to stay angry.
Instead, I saw my little sister.
Not the smug woman at the dining room table.
The kid who used to crawl into my bed during thunderstorms.
“What did you know, Karla?”
She looked down.
“I knew Mom signed your name sometimes.”
“How long?”
“Years.”
My throat tightened.
“And you never told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because when Mom was helping me, I didn’t want to know too much.”
That hurt.
At least it was honest.
Nathan called the police.
While we waited, Karla handed me her phone.
“There’s something else.”
A photograph.
A scanned document.
At the top, it read:
GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY.
My name was printed beneath it.
The document supposedly granted my mother authority over my finances.
The date was six months after Sophia was born.
My hands started shaking.
I had never signed it.
May you like
But the witness name was one I recognized.
My ex-husband.
