Chapter 7 - The Legal Bluff
Margaret didn't go down without throwing a wild, desperate punch. With two weeks left on her eviction notice, I was served with a lawsuit. She had found a bottom-feeding attorney willing to file an injunction against the eviction and sue me for "Grandparent's Visitation Rights," claiming I was alienating her from Lily.
We met in a sterile conference room at my lawyer’s high-rise office. Margaret sat across the long glass table, flanked by her cheap lawyer. She wore a black dress, looking every bit the tragic, aggrieved matriarch.
“My client is simply asking for what is fair,” her lawyer started, puffing his chest out. “A continuation of the financial support implicitly promised to her by her late daughter, and mandatory weekend visitation with her granddaughter.”
My lawyer, a shark named Diane, didn't even look up from her legal pad. “No.”
Margaret bristled. “You can't just say no! I have rights! That girl is my blood!”
“You don't want to see Lily, Margaret,” I said softly, leaning forward. “You want leverage. You want to use my daughter as a hostage to force me to keep paying for your life.”
“That is slander!” she hissed.
Diane finally looked up, sliding a thick, red folder across the glass table. “It’s not slander if it’s documented fraud, Mrs. Vance.”
Margaret’s lawyer opened the folder. As he flipped through the pages—the offshore account statements, the hidden life insurance policy, the fraudulent tax returns claiming zero assets—he physically recoiled, inching his chair slightly away from Margaret.
“What is this?” Margaret demanded, trying to snatch the papers.
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“That is proof that you committed massive financial fraud,” Diane stated coldly. “You obtained over $350,000 from my client under false pretenses while hiding a seven-figure asset. It’s called wire fraud and extortion, Mrs. Vance. It carries federal prison time.”
Margaret stared at the documents, her mouth opening and closing like a suffocating fish. The mask didn't just slip; it shattered into dust.
