My Sister Faked the Fall. This Time, I Filmed It. novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Lender

The man in the gray overcoat came back on Wednesday, and this time he brought two men.

They stood on Gran's porch, and he held a paper in a clear sleeve.

"Mrs. Boteler. Your mother signed a pledge against this house in March."

"My mother doesn't own this house."

"She pledged it with your signature."

He held the sleeve to the light.

The signature was mine, loops and slant and all.

I had never written it.

"That's forged," Finbar said from the doorway.

"Perhaps." The man smiled. "But I'm a patient creditor, and a court takes years to say so. Until then I hold a lien on your grandmother's house and on whatever it sits beside."

"The trust."

"The trust. You will pay what's owed, with interest, by Friday, or my associates will begin visiting your son's pediatrician."

He said it kindly.

The two men on either side of him said nothing.

One of them had a thick brown envelope and the other had a crowbar hanging from his hand.

My chest went cold, and then, in a way I had not expected, calm.

"You have to be careful what you say on this porch," I said.

"Why?"

I pointed at the corner of the porch roof.

A small white disc sat under the eave, with a red light blinking in its center.

He looked up at it.

For the first time, his smile moved out of place.

"You installed it yesterday," he said.

"Finbar installed it last night. Smile."

Finbar raised the camera from his hip. He had been recording since the car stopped.

"Interesting evening," the lender said slowly. "I wonder what your mother would say if I told her."

"She's in county. She can't hear you."

"Then I will tell a judge that your mother and I made an honest loan."

"Honest," I said.

I stepped aside.

Kylie came out of the front room with a blue clothbound book in both hands, the kind with a ribbon.

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