Chapter 11
Lindsey stepped outside the facility, her mind completely awash with everything she had learned.
Chelsea joined her and muttered, “I don’t know how this came to land in your court, but I appreciate you and want to thank you again for introducing me to my cousin.”
Lindsey smiled at her. “You’re welcome. The family resemblance was pretty strong, so, when I saw you, it cemented it.”
“Right, that makes sense. Regardless it won’t be so easy to oust my mother from that property. She won’t go voluntarily.”
“And the boyfriend?”
Chelsea winced. “He’s a bit of a gun fanatic and doesn’t have any respect for the law. Plus, he thinks he has the right to do whatever he wants—not work, not pay taxes, and a whole host of other shady things. He won’t be easy to remove either.”
“Right.”
Sterling appeared and held up an envelope.
“You stepped out a little too early to see, but Granddad gave me the paperwork that he set up with the lawyer and the contact details for the attorney himself,” he shared.
“I will get my lawyer with Grandpa’s lawyer and see if they can move things along so I can live there. ”
“That should help.” Lindsey glanced over at Chelsea and told her, “I’m sorry you’re in the middle of this.”
“I’m not in the middle,” Chelsea stated.
“I moved out years ago. I would never have condoned my mother putting Sterling into foster care way back when, not to mention taking his property. Now she’ll say she’s been looking after it, as if a caretaker, so deserves to be paid for all that,” she shared.
“I can see that as one of her arguments, in addition to paying the property taxes all this time.”
“Which she didn’t pay,” Sterling pointed out. “Grandpa did, and he did so not knowing whether I was alive or dead. So, it was a good thing, especially now that I turned out to be alive.”
“That’s true.”
“He paid those bills and, in this documentation he gave to his lawyer, is a full accounting of the money he had put into the place up to that time. He also wrote a notarized statement, saying that all was to go to me and that, had he known I was alive, he never would have left me in foster care.”
Lindsey could see his throat work as Sterling processed this new information.
Since entering the foster system at such a young age, Sterling believed he had been completely deserted and abandoned by his family, those who were supposed to look after him in a time of tragic loss and need, especially his grandfather.
However, now Sterling had evidence that the old man didn’t even know Sterling was alive back then and had been lied to and victimized, just like the rest of them.
These revelations had been pretty difficult to hear.
Even now Lindsey thought Sterling was still struggling to hold back the emotions of the reunion and the truth he had discovered.
She reached out a hand to him, and he latched on to hers and squeezed her hand gently.
She smiled, then turned to Chelsea. “We’ll keep you updated. No telling how bad it’ll get.”
Chelsea nodded, about to walk away, then stopped, turning back to them.
“I cannot emphasize enough that, if you think it’ll get bad, you need to quadruple whatever you’re expecting.
Just remember that Charlie is a lazy no-account loser who is armed.
He doesn’t work, and he’s been looking to my mother to support him all this time.
At this point, he considers that land his, and they will no doubt play the squatters’ rights card. ”
Sterling nodded. “I am fully prepared to use my rights as the legal landowner, and, if we have to get a judge and jury involved, we will,” Sterling declared.
“Penny is not squeaky clean. She tried to get your student loan money, has drained money from Grandpa for years, and, when he wouldn’t give her more, she dumped him in a home and is currently trying to get him declared incompetent.
She put me into foster care and told them my grandfather was dead.
Penny also told Grandpa that I was dead, then basically bled dry the farm.
All that won’t ingratiate Penny to the judge or any jury,” he suggested.
“I’m hoping my mother’s will points out the fact that the property’s mine and rightly has been since the day my mother died. ”
Chelsea pointed to the documents in Sterling’s hand.
“Seems to be yours because of our granddad. I don’t know how that all works,” Chelsea admitted, with a shrug.
“However, since Mom and now Charlie have been there such a long time, there may be some support for them remaining there per the laws these days.”
“I’ve heard that too, but the pendulum swung too far. More recently I understand, some of these squatters’ rights laws are changing.”
“Squatters? … Is that what they are?” Chelsea asked, with a wry look. “Do you mean that I toiled on somebody else’s land this whole time just because my mother was a squatter?”
“Because your mother was greedy,” Sterling corrected in a hard tone.
Chelsea closed her eyes briefly and then slowly nodded. “Yes, that is exactly what she is. Anyway, I have to go. Keep me posted.”
“Watch yourself,” Sterling warned her. “What you don’t know is whether they think you’re involved or not.
Odds are, they’ll probably hold everything against you because they appear to be that kind of people.
Plus, heading into a legal fight, there’s a good chance she’ll ask you for money for the lawyers to defend it. ”
“She already has, but I don’t even have any money.
That’s the thing she just doesn’t get. I used the student loan money to pay for the college courses, and I’m living on my last couple thousand dollars, which I need for rent and essentials to get through the next month and a half.
And then I need a full-time job, and I’ll need it very quickly,” she told them.
Lindsey shook her head. “She doesn’t listen or doesn’t understand though, so she’ll probably ask again.
Don’t let her have any access to your bank accounts.
It would be best if she had no idea where your money is—or how to apply to get a credit card in your name or anything like that,” Lindsey warned.
“I hate to say it, but, as an accountant, we do see all kinds of other sideline issues when people are trying to get money—usually from their own family members.”
Chelsea stared at her in shock and then muttered, “God, that sounds awful.”
“It is, so—”
“I get it, warning taken,” she stated, “and thank you.” Still, she hesitated for a moment. “How do I confirm that she can’t get into my credit cards or can’t apply for more in my name?”
“She would need your personal information, like your current address and phone number. If you apply for a new credit card, make sure that any bills or anything else you have, like a car title or whatnot, won’t go to her address.”
“I don’t really have a permanent address yet,” she noted, “so that wouldn’t be easy for her to get.”
Lindsey added, “And freeze all your credit reports from the three bureaus. That way, nobody can get new credit in your name, not even you. You’ll have to unfreeze them all if you want to get a new card or a new car loan or things like that.
Just don’t forget to freeze them again in another day or two, so that your mother can’t slip in there. ”
Sterling added, “You may want to send the details to the lawyer who Grandpa used, and we’ll confirm that nothing has happened to date.”
“Grandpa’s not a big believer in credit cards,” Chelsea noted, “but my mother is, so that might be a good thing to have someone look into.”
“He might not be a believer, but your mom can bleed him dry using cards she has set up in his name,” Sterling pointed out. “It’s not unheard of, and, unfortunately in families, it’s a huge issue.”
“How is that even a thing?” Chelsea asked, staring at him in shock.
“Somebody out at the Haven dealt with a similar situation recently. It’s ugly and involves all kinds of things we don’t want to deal with,” he shared. “So let’s keep you free and clear of Penny trying to mess up your life before it’s even started.”
“Christ,” Chelsea muttered. She took a picture of the attorney’s business card that Sterling held out for her. “I will contact him right away.”
“Do that, and mention both me and Grandpa.”
She nodded slowly. “It’s so weird to think that you’re even in my life, you know? You were always this nameless mystery kid.”
“Yeah, well, I was real enough,” he muttered, “but never for anybody at your place.”
She winced and nodded. “You have no idea how sorry I am about that.”
He shrugged. “Thanks, but no way you could have done anything. You were too young. So, let’s just carry on, and hopefully, if you’re interested, we can spend some time getting to know each other,” he offered.
“In the meantime, we do have a common goal—that your mother and Charlie don’t further mess up our lives, and hopefully I can resolve the other problem with my property. ”
“Will you move onto the property?” Chelsea asked.
“That was my hope,” he replied, “but I don’t know about continuing with the organic gardening stuff.”
“Considering Mom never did get certified, that was just one big lie,” Chelsea reminded him. “Therefore, you can’t continue organic farming. You would have to start the process of getting certified.”
He winced. “In that case I won’t even go in that direction. I might set up a dog training facility or something of that sort on the land.”
“There is a lot of land,” she noted. “It’s … It was …”
“Was what?”
“It was a really nice place to grow up.”
“I felt that way too,” he muttered. “I still have those memories. I just have other memories of being rousted out of the land and told my mother had died. My grandfather abandoned me, or so I thought. My life was never the same again.”