Chapter 6 - The Property Beneath the City
Walter explained that Jason had forged Olivia’s name on the final transfer document.
The property was supposed to pass into a company controlled by Sharon.
Walter intercepted the filing and substituted a different deed.
Instead of transferring the land away from Olivia, he moved it into a protected trust she alone could control.
“That is why the bag mattered,” Walter said. “The original deed proves the trust was created before Jason filed the false transfer.”
Olivia stared at the document.
“How much is the property worth?”
David answered.
“Two hundred and forty million dollars.”
The number meant nothing at first.
Olivia had left her marriage with forty three dollars in her handbag.
She had spent years asking Jason before buying groceries because he claimed they were always close to missing mortgage payments.
All the while, he had been moving millions through her name.
Rachel arrived at the clinic after escaping the motel.
Her sleeve was torn, but she was unharmed.
“Jason and Sharon are gone,” she said. “The police found the gun, but the local captain is delaying the search.”
Walter looked at David.
“Captain Reeves?”
David nodded.
“Still loyal to Sharon.”
Rachel examined the trust documents.
“These can stop the property transfer, but only if we file them before the county office opens tomorrow.”
“Why before tomorrow?” Olivia asked.
“Sharon scheduled an emergency sale. Once the property is transferred to an overseas company, recovering it could take years.”
Olivia looked toward the dark window.
“Then we file tonight.”
“The electronic system is controlled by a clerk Jason paid,” Rachel said. “We need to present the original deed in person.”
“The office is closed.”
Walter reached into his coat and removed a key card.
“Not for county commissioners.”
Olivia stared at him.
“You are a commissioner?”
“I was elected under my full name. Sharon made sure the family never mentioned it around you.”
For five years, Walter had allowed everyone to treat him as an old man without influence.
Now Olivia realized silence had been his disguise.
They returned to San Antonio before dawn.
The county building stood almost empty.
Walter used his card to access a private entrance.
Inside the records room, Rachel began scanning the documents.
A warning appeared on the screen.
FILING BLOCKED BY COURT ORDER.
Jason had moved faster.
Rachel opened the order.
A judge had declared Olivia mentally incompetent to control financial property.
The petition had been filed by her husband three months earlier.
Attached were medical evaluations claiming she suffered from delusions and memory loss.
Olivia recognized the doctor’s name.
It was the therapist Jason had insisted she see after her father’s death.
“He has been building a case to take control of me for years.”
Walter examined the judge’s signature.
“Judge Collins attended our house tonight.”
Olivia remembered the elegant man who had shaken Sharon’s hand during the family’s final dinner.
Rachel looked toward the hallway.
“If the judge knows we have the deed, he will send someone.”
The lights went out.
A lock clicked behind them.
Then Jason’s voice came through the dark records room.
May you like
“You should have taken the divorce and disappeared.”
Continue to the next part: Trapped inside the county building, Olivia must expose Jason before the false medical order erases her legal identity.
