Chapter 6 - The Forensic Audit
"Don't open that door," I said, my voice shaking with a sudden surge of adrenaline. "Do not unlock it, David. She’s served with an emergency protective order. If she’s within five hundred yards of this house, she’s in direct violation of a court order."
David didn't touch the deadbolt. Instead, he pulled out his phone and dialed the police dispatch directly. "I need an emergency unit at 842 Orchard Lane. An individual with an active protective order is currently attempting to force entry into our residence."
Through the frosted glass side-panels of the door, Meredith’s silhouette was frantic. She was slamming her palms against the wood, her voice screeching through the seals.
*"Alicia! Open the door, you spiteful b—ch! You ruined my life! Take that post down! Chloe saw it! Everyone saw it! Julian dumped me, Alicia! He took his bags and left because he thinks I’m a criminal! Open the door!"*
Julian was the deadbeat boyfriend she had dragged to Cabo on my children's college money.
I stepped into the hallway, standing behind David, looking at her distorted shape through the glass. "Meredith! The police are en route! You are violating a restraining order! Leave now or you are leaving in handcuffs!"
*"I don't care about your f—king restraining order!"* she shrieked, kicking the base of the door. Her voice sounded wild, unhinged by the sudden total loss of control. For twenty-six years, tears, tantrums, and explosive rage had always yielded immediate surrender from our parents. When she screamed, Eleanor gave her a credit card. When she sulked, Arthur gave her an apology. She had never, in her entire life, collided with an immovable object.
I was that object.
Two minutes later, the wail of sirens sliced through the quiet suburban afternoon.
Meredith froze. She spun around on the porch, her designer sunglasses flying off her head as she realized two patrol cruisers were pulling into the driveway, cutting off her vehicle.
"Meredith Vance!" an officer barked through a megaphone. "Step away from the door and place your hands on your head!"
"No! You don't understand!" she wailed, backing toward the porch railing. "This is my sister! She’s trying to destroy me!"
"Step down from the porch now!"
David and I watched through the security monitor as the two officers ascended the steps, grabbed Meredith’s arms, forced her wrists behind her back, and clicked the steel cuffs into place. She began thrashing, screaming profanities that made our neighbors across the street emerge from their homes to watch.
The humiliation she had tried to inflict upon me in the intimacy of a Thanksgiving dining room had now been amplified a thousandfold, played out on the public stage of a suburban driveway under the cold glare of flashing red and blue lights.
As the officers shoved her into the back of the cruiser, my phone rang again. It was Dad.
"Alicia," he said. He sounded completely hollowed out, but steady. "Croft’s forensic accountant just completed the preliminary audit of the Starlight Creative account."
I watched the cruiser drive away with my sister in the back seat. "What did they find, Dad?"
"It’s worse than we thought," Arthur said, his voice dropping to a low, grave whisper. "Eleanor didn't just forge my signature on the mortgage papers. Two years ago, she intercepted my retirement disbursement from the machinists' union. She forged a power of attorney document to divert thirty percent of my monthly pension into an off-shore trading account run by some internet swindler Meredith met online."
I gasped. "The pension? Dad, that was your entire safety net!"
"It’s gone, Alicia. Over one hundred and eighty thousand dollars of union retirement, vanished into thin air. Eleanor didn't just ruin our present. She gambled away my entire past."
Arthur took a ragged breath.
May you like
"I’m not saving them, Alicia. I’m pressing full criminal charges against your mother for identity theft, bank fraud, and forgery. I’ve signed the affidavits. The district attorney is taking the case."
***