Chapter 7
Tessa turned on Brandon before the cuffs closed.
Not nobly.
Not entirely.
Fear is not the same as morality, but sometimes it points in the useful direction.
“He told me Clara wanted liquidity,” she said quickly.
Brandon snapped, “Tessa.”
“He said the estate was becoming a tax burden.”
“Tessa, stop.”
“He said the family had agreed.”
Detective Hale looked at her.
“Did he tell you his power of attorney had been revoked?”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“No, he told me Clara was too emotional to understand what the property was costing her.”
Rebecca made a note.
Brandon’s face twisted.
“You believed me.”
Tessa stared at him.
“You used me.”
“You needed money.”
“For payroll, Brandon. Not fraud.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Oh, now you’re ethical?”
She flinched.
That one sentence revealed enough of their private relationship that I almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
Then I remembered she had walked through my farmhouse measuring it with her eyes.
Detective Hale cuffed Brandon’s wrists.
Tessa stepped back as if distance could save her.
It might not.
Her company had received the funds.
Her signature appeared on several transaction approvals.
Whether she was victim, accomplice, or willfully blind would be decided by people who did not care about floral dresses.
Brandon looked at me as the detective turned him toward the SUV.
“You did this to your own brother?”
There it was.
The family shield.
Blood as defense.
I stepped closer.
“No.”
“You sold your sister’s home.”
He jerked against the cuffs.
“You never needed it.”
I stared at him.
“You don’t know what I need.”
“You live alone in a six-million-dollar estate.”
“I live in the last place Grandma felt safe.”
His face changed for a second.
Only a second.
Then anger returned.
“She loved me too.”
“Yes.”
“And she still did not leave you the house.”
That landed.
Brandon looked toward the farmhouse with a grief I had never seen in him before.
But it was not grief for Grandma.
It was grief for the thing he believed should have been his.
Detective Hale guided him toward the vehicle.
The SOLD sign creaked softly in the wind.
I walked over, gripped the wooden post, and pulled it from the ground.
The hole it left was small.
May you like
Repairable.
Read the full story 👉 Tessa began cooperating immediately, while Brandon tried to hide behind being Clara’s brother after trying to steal her home.
