Chapter 15 - THE DAY I THOUGHT I COULD LOSE EVERYTHING
I drove to the clinic immediately.
My director, Dr. Helen Marsh, was waiting.
So was human resources.
I had never been investigated at work.
I hated the feeling.
The altered pay statement had my employee number.
My name.
The clinic logo.
My salary information.
Someone reviewing the refinance application had contacted the clinic to verify the discrepancy.
I explained everything.
The attempted refinance.
The false authorization.
The investigation.
The attorney.
The altered documents.
Then I placed copies of my reports on the table.
Helen read them quietly.
“Claire, did you alter this pay statement?”
“No.”
“Did you authorize anyone else to alter it?”
“No.”
“Did you submit it to a lender?”
“No.”
She nodded.
“That is what we needed.”
HR requested a formal written statement.
I provided one.
Nobody fired me.
Nobody accused me.
But when I returned to my car, I finally cried.
Not because I missed Andrew.
Because his choices had entered the one place in my life where I had always felt competent.
My work.
For years, I had built a reputation on reliability.
Now his dishonesty was forcing me to defend my own name.
Rachel called while I sat in the parking lot.
“The lender confirmed the document originated from Andrew’s upload account.”
I wiped my face.
“Good.”
“There’s more.”
I almost laughed.
“There is always more.”
“The account receiving part of the refinance funds was not going to be joint.”
I became still.
“It was an LLC.”
“Whose LLC?”
“Lake Horizon Holdings.”
I had never heard the name.
Rachel continued.
“It was formed four months ago.”
“By Andrew?”
“And Brooke.”
I stared through the windshield.
They had created a company together.
The refinance money was not merely intended for a future house.
It was going into a business entity they shared.
“They were planning this.”
“Yes.”
“For months.”
“Yes.”
That night, I returned home.
Andrew was gone.
The rooms felt enormous.
Then I noticed something on the dining table.
A handwritten note.
Claire,
I know you think you understand everything.
You don’t.
Ask your grandmother’s attorney why Lorraine believes this house should have been hers.
Andrew.
I read the note three times.
May you like
My grandmother had been dead for eight years.
And suddenly, Andrew was suggesting the fight over my house had begun before I ever bought it.
