Chapter 4 - Jason Had Filed the Transfer
Jason Pierce was not an attorney.
He ran a real-estate consulting company.
At least, that was what he called it.
Ethan had never liked him.
Too polished.
Too confident.
Too interested in numbers that were not his.
Lauren always defended him.
“He’s ambitious.”
Margaret called it something else.
“Greedy.”
Ethan stood on the front porch while Robert explained.
The false transfer had been submitted electronically.
The attached notarization was fake.
The supporting documents referenced a trust amendment that did not exist.
Ethan looked at Lauren.
“You knew Jason was doing this?”
“No.”
Margaret asked, “Did you give him access to Ethan’s records?”
Lauren hesitated.
“I gave him some tax documents.”
Ethan’s voice dropped.
“Why?”
“He said he could help us refinance.”
“We weren’t refinancing.”
Lauren snapped.
“We needed liquidity.”
Ethan stared.
“We?”
Her eyes flashed.
“Our life, Ethan. The business. The house. Everything is tied up.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“The house is not ours.”
“That is exactly the problem.”
Margaret’s expression changed.
There it was.
Not surprise.
Not confusion.
Motive.
Lauren had believed the house should belong to them.
And someone had tried to make that legally true.
Robert handed Ethan another document.
A mortgage application.
The house had been used as proposed collateral for a $2.8 million commercial loan.
Ethan stopped breathing.
His company, Morgan Restoration, had been struggling.
But he had never applied for that loan.
Lauren whispered, “I was trying to save us.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You forged my signature?”
“No.”
“Then Jason did?”
She looked away.
Margaret said quietly, “Keep reading.”
Ethan did.
At the bottom of the application was a personal guarantor.
Lauren Pierce Morgan.
And beside her name was another.
Jason Pierce.
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The loan was not for Ethan’s company.
It was for theirs.
