Chapter 3 - The Secret Inside the Console
""Shut up, Adam! Shut your damn mouth!"" Harper screamed, lunging at her husband with her fists clenched. ""You swore to me! You swore you'd never say a word!""
Adam caught her wrists easily. He looked exhausted, aged far beyond his thirty years. ""It's over, Harper. Look around you! Your brother has the whole thing documented on video. The bank took the truck. The lender is calling the fraud investigators on Monday. Do you want both of us to go to federal prison?""
""Prison?"" Richard's voice dropped to a terrified whisper. ""What are you talking about? What fraud?""
Adam let go of Harper's wrists and turned directly to my father. ""I never lost my job, Mr. Reed. Not for a single day.""
Richard blinked, stunned. ""What? Harper told me your engineering firm laid off half its staff last winter. She told me you couldn't pay your mortgage, that you were days away from losing your home!""
""I've been working full-time at the firm for four straight years,"" Adam said quietly. ""I make ninety-five thousand a year. The mortgage has always been automatically deducted from my primary checking account. We were never behind on our house. Not by a single dollar.""
Eleanor let out a sharp cry of shock. She stumbled back a step, leaning against the fender of my work truck for support. I immediately reached out and caught her elbow, gently steadying her.
""Then why did you take my money?"" Dad asked, his voice shaking violently with a mixture of confusion and boiling rage. ""Why did Harper tell me you were living on food stamps? Why did I empty our retirement account? Why did I borrow against my life insurance policy to give her ten thousand dollars in January?""
""I didn't take your money, Richard,"" Adam replied, looking directly at my father with deep remorse. ""She did. And she didn't just take your money. She was taking money from my parents, too. My mother gave her six thousand dollars last spring because Harper told her my salary had been cut in half and that Milo needed emergency orthopedic therapy.""
My jaw clenched. ""Milo is three years old,"" I said, looking Harper dead in the eye. ""You used your toddler’s health as an excuse to shake down your in-laws?""
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Harper glared at me with pure venom, tears streaming down her contoured makeup. ""You don't understand anything! You have no idea what it's like trying to keep up with people! Everyone in our subdivision has new luxury SUVs! Everyone at my club goes on vacations to Aspen and Cabo! You wanted me to live like trailer trash just because you chose to be a grease monkey tow-truck driver?""
""A grease monkey?"" I chuckled bitterly, shaking my head. ""This grease monkey owns his trucks, his lot, and his business debt-free. While your entire luxury lifestyle is nothing more than a tower of fraudulent cards waiting to collapse.""
