Chapter 6 - The Family Exodus
By Monday afternoon, the news of my mother's arrest had spread through our extended family like wildfire through dry brush.
My phone didn't stop buzzing. Aunt Betsy—the same aunt who had laughed while telling Amy to clean the dishes—called three times in a row, likely looking for a handout or trying to spin a narrative to save her own skin. I sent every single call straight to voicemail.
Amy and Frederick were finally discharged from the hospital. When I brought them back home, I had already spent the morning hiring a professional biohazard and deep-cleaning service to scrub every inch of the kitchen and nursery.
Amy walked into the living room, looking around tentatively as if waiting for another shoe to drop.
"It's clean, Amy," I said softly, coming up behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist, resting my chin on her shoulder. "No one is ever going to make you feel like a servant in your own home again. I promise you."
Amy leaned back against me, letting out a long, shuddering breath that felt like months of built-up trauma finally leaving her lungs. "She called me yesterday from the holding facility, Connor."
My muscles instantly tensed. "Did she threaten you?"
"No," Amy said, her voice quiet. "She didn't scream. She just... sounded pathetic. She told me that without her managing everything, we would fail within a month. She honestly believed she was doing us a favor."
"She wasn't doing us a favor," I said firmly, turning her around to face me. "She was building an empire using our backs as the foundation. But that's over."
Just then, my phone chimed on the kitchen counter. It wasn't a call. It was an email notification from my bank.
I walked over and opened it. It was a preliminary asset recovery report from the forensic auditor recommended by Detective Miller.
What I saw inside made my blood run cold.
Teresa hadn't just stolen fifty thousand dollars. She had taken out a second mortgage on my house six months ago—for two hundred thousand dollars—using a forged power of attorney she had secretly had me sign during a routine paperwork signing for my business license.
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The money wasn't in her account anymore. It had already been funneled into a high-risk commercial real estate venture managed by none other than my cousin Mason.
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