Chapter 6 - The Lie Everyone Had Been Given
Lucas finally agreed to meet me after Claire sent a formal request for records and explained that litigation was likely.
We met at a coffee shop in West Allis.
He arrived angry.
Not guilty.
Angry.
“You’re trying to destroy my company.”
“I’m trying to find my money.”
“It’s invested.”
“I never invested it.”
He pushed his chair back.
“Brandon said Margaret did.”
“My mother never gave you a dollar.”
Lucas stared at me.
Then he looked toward the window.
I watched the anger drain out of his posture.
“He said she didn’t want her name on anything.”
“Why?”
“He said she was worried you’d think she was playing favorites.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It did at the time.”
Of course it had.
Because I had spent years making strange financial arrangements seem normal.
I had given Lucas $35,000 before his wedding without asking for paperwork.
I had paid Liam’s rent without a repayment schedule.
I had covered Diane’s expenses without keeping receipts.
In Brandon’s family, money moved informally because I had helped create that culture.
Lucas pulled out his phone.
“Look.”
He opened a message thread with Brandon.
There were references to Maggie’s money, the widow money, and once, simply, M.H.
None of them proved Margaret had agreed to anything.
But they proved Brandon had been using her name.
“How long did you believe this?”
“Since we bought the place.”
“Fourteen months?”
“Yes.”
“And you never thought it was strange that Mom never discussed the investment with you?”
“She’s your mother. I figured she dealt with Brandon because you two were married.”
I wanted to call him stupid.
Then I remembered how many things I had assumed because Brandon was my husband.
Assumption was the engine of the entire mess.
Lucas rubbed his forehead.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The property wasn’t supposed to take this long.”
He explained that the original plan had been six months.
Buy.
Renovate.
Sell.
Repay the private capital.
Split the profit.
But they had found foundation damage and old wiring. A subcontractor quit. Insurance costs rose. The first buyer backed out.
The project dragged on.
“So Brandon kept transferring more money.”
Lucas nodded.
“I thought Margaret had approved it.”
“He was taking it from us.”
Lucas looked sick.
For the first time, I believed him.
Not completely.
But enough to understand that Brandon had lied in two directions.
To me, he pretended our savings were intact.
To Lucas, he pretended the money belonged to Margaret.
That evening, Mom and I had our own difficult conversation.
She admitted Brandon had asked her twice for money.
The second time, he had been less friendly.
“He said family should help family,” she told me.
I closed my eyes.
It was almost word for word what Diane had said.
“What did you say?”
“I said I had already watched you help his family for seven years.”
I looked at her.
“And?”
“I told him it was time they learned to help themselves.”
That was when Brandon’s behavior toward her had changed.
The complaints about cooking.
The television.
The bathroom.
The space she occupied.
Mom had believed it was resentment over her refusing the loan.
Now we knew there was more.
Her refusal had threatened a story Brandon had already been telling for months.
May you like
And then Lucas sent me one final message.
You need to ask him what the 10,500 was actually for.
