{"id":28147,"date":"2026-10-02T19:43:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T19:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=28147"},"modified":"2026-10-02T19:43:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T19:43:24","slug":"part-3-my-son-had-been-living-behind-two-locks-and-the-notebook-under-his-mattress-explained-why-he-no-longer-trusted-his-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=28147","title":{"rendered":"PART 3 \u2013 My Son Had Been Living Behind Two Locks, and the Notebook Under His Mattress Explained Why He No Longer Trusted His Father"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I set the bakery box on the folding table and reached for Liam.<\/p>\n<p>This time he let me.<\/p>\n<p>He hugged me with both arms and held on hard enough that the edge of his shoulder pressed painfully against my chin.<\/p>\n<p>Liam had not hugged me that way since he was a child.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened to you?\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m okay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, you aren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He released me and checked the blinds again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere\u2019s your car?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOutside.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich one?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe blue rental.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His face changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou booked it under your name?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd your hotel?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFlight?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He closed his eyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe might have to move your car.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiam, stop. Sit down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen stand there, but tell me what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He remained beside the window.<\/p>\n<p>I studied him. \u201cYour father told me somebody was watching the beach house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam gave a short laugh without humor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDad told you that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s convenient.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead of answering, he walked to the mattress and crouched beside it.<\/p>\n<p>He reached underneath.<\/p>\n<p>When he stood, he held a battered black notebook.<\/p>\n<p>Its cover was bent at one corner. Several pages had swollen from moisture. Rubber bands held loose papers against the back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything I could write down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbout what?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked at me for a long moment.<\/p>\n<p>My son was deciding how much truth I could handle.<\/p>\n<p>The realization made me unexpectedly angry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo what?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at me the way your father does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His expression tightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means everybody today has been deciding which pieces I\u2019m allowed to know. I\u2019m finished with that. Start anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam sat across from me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you go inside the beach house?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho was there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChloe and the boys. Richard arrived. Then David.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas Aunt Chloe okay?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know. She had bruises around her wrist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His head snapped up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou didn\u2019t know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho is Mark?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHer husband.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know who he is. Where is he?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know. Aunt Chloe stopped talking about him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another missing piece.<\/p>\n<p>I pushed it aside temporarily.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy did you leave?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam opened the notebook.<\/p>\n<p>The first pages were covered with dates, addresses, names, license-plate numbers and short observations.<\/p>\n<p>Dad asked about Mom\u2019s passport.<\/p>\n<p>Aunt Chloe asked where closing documents were.<\/p>\n<p>Dad said Mom approved paperwork.<\/p>\n<p>Gray SUV outside campus.<\/p>\n<p>Same SUV outside house.<\/p>\n<p>County record changed.<\/p>\n<p>I touched the final line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw the county record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam\u2019s eyes met mine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo you know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know your father\u2019s name is on the property.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He reached beneath the mattress again and pulled out an old laptop.<\/p>\n<p>While it started, I asked the question I had been avoiding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid your father hurt you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The answer came too slowly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiam.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe didn\u2019t hit me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat wasn\u2019t my question.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wanted me scared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I moved my chair closer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He stared at the laptop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst, I thought the house thing was some paperwork mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy would you even check?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDad started asking questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat questions?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbout the closing. Insurance. Whether you planned to put the property in my name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat isn\u2019t unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t at first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The laptop finished loading.<\/p>\n<p>Liam opened a folder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen he asked where you kept your copies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A memory surfaced.<\/p>\n<p>Months earlier, David had called me unexpectedly. We had talked about Liam, tuition, and insurance. Somewhere in that conversation he had asked whether I still kept important documents in the old cabinet in my office.<\/p>\n<p>I had barely noticed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did you tell him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat Grandma\u2019s estate attorney mailed you copies of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told him where some older documents were too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked ashamed.<\/p>\n<p>I reached across the table.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever your father did with information you gave him is his responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI helped.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou trusted your father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI should\u2019ve known.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. Children are supposed to be able to answer ordinary questions from their parents without conducting a fraud investigation first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re my child. Different category.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That almost produced a smile.<\/p>\n<p>Almost.<\/p>\n<p>He opened a scanned document.<\/p>\n<p>The heading appeared immediately.<\/p>\n<p>QUITCLAIM DEED.<\/p>\n<p>My name was listed as grantor.<\/p>\n<p>David Mitchell was listed as grantee.<\/p>\n<p>At the bottom sat a signature.<\/p>\n<p>Mine.<\/p>\n<p>Except it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who did not know me would have accepted it.<\/p>\n<p>I would not.<\/p>\n<p>The first letter of my surname leaned at the wrong angle. The final stroke was too deliberate. My real signature had become messy after years of signing school forms, checks, contracts, and documents in a hurry.<\/p>\n<p>This one looked practiced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen was this filed?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEight months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never signed it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho notarized it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam enlarged the lower section.<\/p>\n<p>Melissa Grant.<\/p>\n<p>The name meant nothing to me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho is she?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave you looked?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe used to work with Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My eyes moved back to the forged signature.<\/p>\n<p>Eight months.<\/p>\n<p>For eight months, David had legally appeared to own property purchased entirely with my money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy didn\u2019t the county contact me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause the paperwork looked legitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you call them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked questions without giving my name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause Dad knows I found it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSix weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve known for six weeks?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI needed proof.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou needed to call me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought I needed proof first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The shame in his voice dissolved my anger.<\/p>\n<p>I reached for his hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are not responsible for convincing me that your father did something wrong before you are allowed to ask me for help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His eyes reddened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI might have helped him do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI answered questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou answered your father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told him about your files.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou did not forge my signature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened when you confronted him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt first he laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSaid I didn\u2019t understand property records.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told him I was calling you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam stopped.<\/p>\n<p>The room seemed suddenly smaller.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat you had more to lose than the house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A cold pressure settled beneath my ribs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExactly that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said families survive because people know when to stop asking questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to the police.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His answer was immediate.<\/p>\n<p>I turned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMom, you haven\u2019t seen everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have seen a forged deed transferring a house I bought to your father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot if they can make everything look legal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam flipped farther through the notebook.<\/p>\n<p>Several photographs had been taped between the pages.<\/p>\n<p>David leaving a restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>Richard standing beside a man I did not recognize.<\/p>\n<p>Chloe entering a bank.<\/p>\n<p>A gray SUV parked near Liam\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n<p>Then I saw myself.<\/p>\n<p>The photograph showed me leaving my Boston office.<\/p>\n<p>I was carrying my laptop bag and looking down at my phone.<\/p>\n<p>The picture had clearly been taken from across the street.<\/p>\n<p>My mouth went dry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone put it under my windshield wiper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I turned the photograph over.<\/p>\n<p>Three words were written on the back.<\/p>\n<p>SHE KNOWS NOTHING.<\/p>\n<p>I sat down again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo weeks ago?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI booked this trip four days ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam stared at me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody knew I was coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou didn\u2019t tell Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAunt Chloe?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGrandma?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiam.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His face changed.<\/p>\n<p>My mother had been dead almost a year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSorry,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n<p>I touched his hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the photograph remained between us.<\/p>\n<p>If nobody had known I was coming to Wilmington, then whoever photographed me in Boston had not been watching because of this trip.<\/p>\n<p>They had already been watching.<\/p>\n<p>Liam swallowed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I didn\u2019t call.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou thought somebody would come after me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t know what they would do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His hands began shaking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI kept telling myself there was some normal explanation. Dad was lying about the house. Grandpa was covering for him. Aunt Chloe had signed something without understanding it. But every answer made the next thing worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat next thing?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He turned the laptop toward me.<\/p>\n<p>A mortgage record appeared.<\/p>\n<p>Three months after the fraudulent deed transferred the house to David, he had borrowed against it.<\/p>\n<p>The amount was $285,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe property had no mortgage,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt does now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere did the money go?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlue Heron Coastal Holdings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve never heard of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither had I.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho owns it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn paper?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAunt Chloe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I thought of her standing barefoot in my kitchen.<\/p>\n<p>I thought of the bruise around her wrist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoes she know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe says she didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou talked to her?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did she say?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDad brought her documents last winter. Told her it was a family investment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd she signed them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout reading them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAunt Chloe signs whatever Grandpa or Dad puts in front of her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat doesn\u2019t make her innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened when you confronted her?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe called Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I waited.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was at the house twenty minutes later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did he do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTold me to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the house I bought for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said it wasn\u2019t yours anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My hands curled against the table.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd you refused?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam opened a drawer and removed a cheap prepaid phone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDad took my regular phone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe took it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said he paid for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re on my plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe smashed it against the counter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stood again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe did what?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe destroyed your phone in front of you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid he touch you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen why are you hiding behind two locks and a chair?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam stared at the prepaid phone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause he gave me this the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I frowned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe broke your phone and bought you another one?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what bothered me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He handed it to me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI took it to a repair shop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was tracking software installed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked down at the device in my hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour father was tracking you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThink?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe guy at the shop said it could report location remotely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I placed the phone carefully on the table.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere\u2019s your car?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStorage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe SUV kept finding me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I thought of the vehicle outside the beach house.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe gray one?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsually.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI photographed the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam looked at me sharply.<\/p>\n<p>I opened the picture.<\/p>\n<p>He pulled the notebook closer and compared the number against three plates he had recorded.<\/p>\n<p>None matched.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDifferent plate,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe plates keep changing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSame vehicle?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSame model. Same damage near the rear bumper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I enlarged my photograph.<\/p>\n<p>A faint scrape crossed the SUV\u2019s bumper.<\/p>\n<p>Liam looked at me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I said, \u201cPack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t go to your hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou used your real name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf somebody was watching you in Boston, they can find your reservation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My flight.<\/p>\n<p>Rental car.<\/p>\n<p>Hotel.<\/p>\n<p>Credit card.<\/p>\n<p>Everything was connected to my name.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time, my surprise visit seemed less spontaneous than reckless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere do we go?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomewhere Dad won\u2019t expect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore we do anything, we copy all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI already did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He reached behind the mattress and produced a small USB drive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI found files in Dad\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou broke into his computer?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. He asked me to help move furniture. He left an external drive connected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd you copied it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s on there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBank statements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis. Grandpa\u2019s. Aunt Chloe\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He paused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd yours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I frowned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have my bank statements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot these.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He opened another file.<\/p>\n<p>A statement appeared.<\/p>\n<p>Account holder: Sarah Mitchell.<\/p>\n<p>My legal name.<\/p>\n<p>My old address.<\/p>\n<p>An apartment I had not lived in for eleven years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never opened this account.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Transactions covered several pages.<\/p>\n<p>Deposits.<\/p>\n<p>Transfers.<\/p>\n<p>Withdrawals.<\/p>\n<p>Money moving through companies I had never heard of.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liam looked at me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA little over nine hundred thousand dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The stolen beach house suddenly became a smaller problem.<\/p>\n<p>Someone had not merely forged my signature.<\/p>\n<p>Someone had constructed a financial history in my name.<\/p>\n<p>And if that history was ever investigated, I was already standing in the middle of it.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=28148\">Click here to continue reading: PART 4: The Money Hidden Behind My Name Was Only the Beginning, and Then David Knocked on the One Door He Should Never Have Found<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I set the bakery box on the folding table and reached for Liam. This time he let me. He hugged me with both arms and held on hard enough that &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28193,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28147\/revisions\/28193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}