Chapter 3 - The Wolf in the Study
Captain Morris marched down the hallway and returned ten seconds later, escorting a man in an expensive charcoal Italian suit. The man held an open leather briefcase, looking irritated and completely dismissive of the military personnel surrounding him.
"Look here," the man barked, straightening his gold tie. "My name is Gregory Sterling. I am senior counsel for Sterling & Cole Real Estate Acquisitions. Whatever domestic drama you have going on has nothing to do with this contract. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have full legal authority as interim administrators of the Eleanor Hayes Memorial Trust. The deed was signed five minutes ago. Apex Commercial now holds ninety percent beneficial title to this property."
Tiffany breathed a ragged sigh of relief, turning a smug, vicious smirk back onto me. "See? It's done, Sarah. You're too late. The signature is on the page. You can take your four stars and your fake war stories and get off our lawn."
General Vance let out a short, terrifying chuckle that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. He glanced at Captain Morris, who opened his tactical binder and retrieved a red-embossed federal warrant.
"Mr. Sterling," General Vance said mildly, stepping into the lawyer's personal space until the attorney had to crane his neck upward. "Did you bother checking the federal title registry before drafting that fraudulent quitclaim deed?"
Sterling’s sneer faltered slightly. "The county records showed a standard municipal probate lien—"
"The county records were placed under Department of Defense Federal Asset Protection five years and three months ago," Vance interrupted, his voice dropping into an icy growl. "When Colonel Hayes was assigned to the National Reconnaissance Office, this property, along with all associated trust assets belonging to Eleanor Hayes, was designated as a restricted Department of the Army protected dependency. Any unauthorized attempt to transfer, alienate, or encumber this title is classified as a federal crime under Title 18, Section 1001, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act."
Sterling’s face drained of every drop of color. His leather briefcase slipped from his hand, spilling legal documents across the floor. "What? No... that’s impossible. Apex checked the—"
"Apex is a predatory shell entity operated by your brother-in-law, Marcus Cole," I said, walking over to the desk documents and picking up the signed deed. "The very man who has been buying distressed suburban land in Denver and flipping it to commercial shopping mall developers. You approached my parents six months ago, offered them a hundred thousand dollars in cash under the table, and told them that if they filed an abandonment affidavit against me, you could bypass probate court."
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My father fell back against the wall, clutching his chest. "Sarah... we... we didn't know it was illegal! Sterling told us it was standard probate procedure!"
"You didn't care if it was illegal, Richard," I said, turning to him with dead, sorrowful eyes. "You only cared about the check."
