Chapter 10 - Eighty Dollars a DayGregory had collected approximately $6,700 from Harper and Lily over three months.
The amount was small compared with the trust.
That made the truth uglier.
He had forced two children onto sidewalks for eighty dollars a day not because the money would save him.
Because he wanted control.
Detective Maya Collins explained it to Rachel while Harper listened from across the table.
“Gregory owed Brandon approximately thirty thousand dollars under an old private agreement.”
“Why?”
“That part is disputed.”
“Brandon paid Gregory forty-five thousand,” Harper said.
Collins looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“I saw the transfers.”
“Do you have copies?”
“Dad broke the phone.”
Collins nodded.
“We obtained bank records independently.”
Harper felt a small surge of relief.
Evidence did not disappear just because Brandon broke something.
Collins continued.
“Gregory says Brandon originally agreed to pay him seventy-five thousand dollars to cooperate with a custody transfer.”
Rachel stared.
“He sold custody of children?”
“Not legally.”
“What does that mean?”
“Gregory could agree not to oppose Brandon’s petition. But neither man could simply sell guardianship. A judge decides custody based on the children’s interests.”
“So what was the money?”
“According to Gregory, compensation for moving out, legal expenses, and surrendering certain claims.”
Harper understood what adults did when they wanted ugly things to sound clean.
They gave them longer names.
“What about the eighty dollars?” she asked.
Collins looked at her carefully.
“Gregory says he began demanding it after Brandon stopped making payments.”
“He made us pay Dad back?”
“In Gregory’s mind, perhaps.”
Lily whispered, “But we didn’t owe him.”
“No,” Collins said firmly. “You did not.”
Harper felt anger rise through her.
Gregory had turned them into a payment plan.
Brandon had watched long enough to photograph it.
Both had called their choices necessary.
Naomi arrived with news about Box 314.
Because the box was registered to Claire’s estate, the executor and trustee obtained court permission to open it.
Harper and Lily were not present.
Rachel was.
Inside were original Northstar documents.
A handwritten ledger.
An audio recorder.
And correspondence between Brandon and Gregory dating back eleven years.
The ledger showed the $1.8 million loan had been secured against Havenridge using Claire’s forged signature.
Northstar Renovations received the money.
Within fourteen months the business lost most of it.
Brandon and Gregory each benefited.
Claire learned the truth later when refinancing records surfaced.
“She could have had them prosecuted,” Rachel said.
“Why didn’t she?”
Collins answered.
“According to her notes, Brandon threatened a custody fight.”
Harper went cold.
“What kind?”
“He claimed he would argue Claire was unstable and take you.”
Lily was not born yet at the time.
Harper had been an infant.
“He used me?”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Harper stared at the table.
Brandon had been using custody as leverage before she could walk.
The audio recorder contained several files.
One was Claire describing the fraud.
Another captured Gregory.
His younger voice sounded different.
“Claire, if you report this, Brandon goes down and I go down with him.”
Claire replied, “Then maybe you both should.”
Gregory pleaded.
“I can fix it.”
“You witnessed a forged signature.”
“I needed the job.”
“You helped steal my mother’s property.”
“I’ll pay it back.”
“You can’t pay back trust.”
Harper looked at Rachel.
Claire’s voice continued.
Then Brandon entered the recording.
“You’re not taking my daughter.”
Claire answered:
“Harper isn’t something you own.”
Silence filled the conference room.
Eleven years later, Brandon was still trying to prove Claire wrong.
Detective Collins stopped the recording.
“This substantially changes the financial investigation.”
Harper asked, “Does it help us?”
“Yes.”
“Will Dad go to jail?”
“Possibly. But investigations take time.”
“And Gregory?”
“He is being charged regarding what happened to you and Lily.”
Harper looked at Lily.
“Can they make us see him?”
“No.”
The answer came from Naomi.
“Not while the no-contact order is active.”
Harper exhaled.
Then Collins said, “There’s one more thing.”
She opened Claire’s ledger.
Near the final pages was an entry dated seven months before Claire died.
BRANDON CONTACTED MORROW AGAIN. WANTS HAVENRIDGE SOLD.
Beneath it:
GREGORY SAYS HE CAN HANDLE BRANDON.
And beneath that:
I NO LONGER KNOW WHICH MAN IS MORE DANGEROUS.
Harper stared at her mother’s handwriting.
May you like
Claire had known the truth before either daughter understood there was a war.
And she had been trying to leave them a map out of it.
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