Chapter 3 - Grant Had Already Promised the Lender My House

The business was worse than Grant told me.

Hale Residential Renovations was not simply having a slow quarter.

Two major clients had delayed payment.

One project was involved in litigation.

A supplier had placed the company on restricted terms.

Payroll taxes were behind.

The proposed $600,000 credit facility would refinance some short-term debt and provide working capital.

That part was legitimate.

What was not legitimate was Grant’s representation that I had agreed to support it with my house.

The lender had an unsigned owner-consent form.

And an email from Grant:

SARAH IS ON BOARD. JUST NEEDS FINAL DOCS.

I stared at the sentence.

“I never said that.”

Rebecca nodded.

“I know.”

The lender had requested direct confirmation from me.

Grant had delayed.

Then promised confirmation Friday morning.

The attack happened Thursday evening.

That did not prove the assault was related to the loan.

Not yet.

Then Rebecca found another detail.

Brooke was not merely Grant’s affair partner.

She was the company controller who had prepared the borrowing package.

She knew exactly what happened if the credit facility failed.

The company would not disappear overnight.

But layoffs became likely.

Grant’s personal guarantees could be enforced.

A commercial property he co-owned with his brother was exposed.

And Brooke herself had loaned the company $62,000.

Her savings.

I understood her anger differently.

Not sympathetically.

Structurally.

She had money trapped inside Grant’s failing business.

I was the woman refusing to pledge the asset that could rescue it.

Add an affair and resentment became personal.

Still, none of it explained why they thought attacking me would make me sign anything.

Until Grant’s attorney sent Rebecca a document.

Not the criminal attorney.

A family-law attorney Grant had consulted three weeks before the attack.

The consultation notes included:

Pregnant spouse increasingly volatile.

Financial control over separately owned residence.

Threatens business survival by withholding cooperation.

Potential concerns re children witnessing outbursts.

Rebecca stopped reading.

I felt cold.

“He was talking about custody before I knew about Brooke.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“We don’t know yet.”

Then she turned the page.

One handwritten note had been underlined twice.

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Neither of us spoke for several seconds.