“He told you that?”
“He swore to me that I could not call you, because he said that if I reached out to you or anyone else, it would only make your situation significantly worse. He convinced me that all of your personal and business accounts were frozen and that he was the only person in the world who could save you.”
I lowered myself onto the floor, the room spinning around me.
“Dad, I went there to close a major contract. Nobody stopped me, nobody investigated me, and I came back early because I finished the job ahead of schedule.”
My father shut his eyes, his whole body seeming to collapse beneath the weight of what he had just realized.
“Then he lied to me. He used my love for you to steal from me.”
I reached out and carefully took the paper from his trembling hand, reading the words printed across it. It was a notarized power of attorney, granting Kyle complete legal authority to mortgage my father’s house and the farmland surrounding it in rural Nebraska. The same house where I had grown up, where photographs of my late mother were kept, and where my father planned to live out the final years of his life. Mother-in-lawgifts
“Did you actually sign this, Dad?”
“Yes, my dear. Kyle took me to a notary office and told me it was the only way to get a quick emergency loan to pay your legal fees. They were supposed to release the money to him at the bank today. Three million dollars.”
A rage moved through me so cold and sharp that it no longer felt like ordinary anger. It felt like pure, icy clarity. Kyle had not merely allowed his family to degrade my father and treat him like dirt; he had also created a cruel, calculated lie to steal the only inheritance my father had left.
I rose abruptly, my mind already racing through every step.
“I am going to go find him right now.”
“No,” my father said, grabbing my hand again. “If you confront him now, he will just take the money and disappear before we can do anything.”
I froze, understanding at once that he was right.
If Kyle was minutes or hours away from receiving those three million dollars, one call from me would warn him, and he would vanish before anyone could stop him. A man capable of manipulating a scared old man with such a vicious lie was absolutely capable of running off with the money.
I took a slow, deep breath to steady myself.
“Dad, you need to listen to me very carefully. I am going to get your house back, but you have to do exactly what I tell you.”
He nodded, tears running down his cheeks.
“I will do whatever you say, my dear.”
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