Chapter 13 - THE VISITOR IN ALBUQUERQUE
Rebecca called Evelyn's care facility immediately.
Staff confirmed that a woman claiming to be a relative had requested visiting privileges.
They would not discuss private details without authorization.
Evelyn had already signed permission for Rebecca to represent her interests in this matter, so Rebecca contacted her directly and helped her arrange appropriate protections.
The visitor did not get inside.
Security cameras later recorded Gloria standing outside the facility beside Walter.
She looked nothing like the frail woman from the television interviews.
She was angry, impatient, and striking the palm of her hand with a folded paper.
The image filled me with disgust.
She had used Evelyn's suffering as a secret for nearly two decades.
Now she was frightened that the truth might speak.
Evelyn agreed to give a recorded statement to investigators.
In it, she described pressure to relinquish guardianship and the promises that her son would receive a stable home and schooling.
Her testimony did not establish every alleged crime, but it dismantled Gloria's invented family history.
Meanwhile an Arizona judge held an early hearing concerning the ownership and occupancy dispute.
Trent arrived in a suit I'd bought him.
Gloria wore the pearls from her television appearance.
Their attorney argued that the company's title should not necessarily defeat every marital claim.
Rebecca agreed the eventual property division would require full legal analysis.
But she demonstrated that Trent had no authority to gift the house or car to Brooke before that process concluded.
The judge entered temporary orders preserving the disputed assets and prohibiting unauthorized transfers or destruction of relevant records.
It was not a final victory.
It was enough to stop Trent's moving trucks.
Outside the courthouse reporters shouted questions.
Gloria stepped toward the cameras.
“My son married a woman who values objects more than people,” she announced.
Trent looked straight at me.
“She'll never be a mother,” he said.
The statement landed in the crowd like a thrown stone.
I felt the old pain but kept walking.
That evening Daniel found an encrypted archive on Brooke's drive.
Brooke claimed Gloria stored a backup passphrase in a paper ledger kept at GLW's commercial property.
The investigators handling the suspected fraud were informed.
They obtained the necessary legal authority before pursuing evidence from the property.
When officers entered, they found desks, old invoices, and an industrial shredder.
The ledger was missing.
But there was a locked metal cabinet.
Inside were seventeen passports belonging to different people.
One carried my photograph.
The name printed beneath it was not Harper Lawson.
May you like
It was Natalie Brooks.
