Chapter 12 · Millions in Debt, Tricked by My Own Brother

Chapter 12

Three days later, Jack brought me the receipt from Summit Bank.His hands were trembling as he entered the hospital room."Claire, how much did your dad actually leave you?" he asked.I took the receipt and looked at it.The trust fund's total value, including all the gains, came to 28 million dollars.I stared at that number for what felt like forever.For four years, I worked four jobs a day only to scrape together 6,000 dollars a month for Ryan's medical bills.For a 100-dollar pain relief patch, I spent seven hours waiting outside someone else's office.For two hundred dollars' worth of anti-inflammatory medication, I nearly sold myself.And all this time, there was 28 million dollars sitting quietly under my name.Mom and Dad never said a word about it.They probably figured that with Ryan around, I'd never need that money."Mr. Foster, other things can wait. I need a lawyer," I said."A lawyer?" Jack repeated."Yeah. Someone who can fight a property dispute in court."Jack thought for a moment. "I know someone. She's your college classmate, Sophia Lane. She passed the bar last year and is now deputy director at Unity Law Firm."I hadn't heard Sophia Lane's name in four years.Back in college, she always sat behind me in class and brought me milk every morning.The day I dropped out, she chased me all the way to the school gate and tried to shove 600 dollars into my hand, but I didn't take it.After that, we lost touch.It wasn't that she didn't try to reach out.I simply couldn't let anyone see how I was living."Help me set up a meeting with her," I said.That afternoon, Sophia showed up.She was dressed in a sharp navy blue suit, her hair slicked back in a tight ponytail.The moment she pushed open the door and saw me, she dropped her briefcase onto the floor."Claire Cooper?" she said."Long time no see," I said.She walked over to the bed, looked me up and down for a long moment."What happened to you?" she asked.I smiled, but I didn't explain anything.She picked up her briefcase from the floor, opened it, and pulled out a thick stack of papers. "Mr. Foster gave me the basics over the phone. I ran a quick background check before coming over."She handed me the papers. "Four years ago, your brother Ryan cited the company's bankruptcy and his own disability to transfer all of Cooper Enterprises' visible assets into three accounts."He's the real controller of those accounts."Emily's spending records show that over the past four years, she's spent more than two million dollars, all coming from those three accounts."At the same time, she's been posing as the Cooper family's adopted daughter in your father's old social circles, telling everyone you were kicked out for squandering the family fortune."I flipped through the data.Emily had spent two million dollars, yet Ryan had been playing poor in front of me for four years.I walked so much to save a penny on bus fare that I could've lapped the city three times.Meanwhile, Emily dropped thirty thousand dollars on one dress."Sophia, I need you to do three things for me," I said."Go ahead," she replied."First, freeze those three accounts."Second, as the legal beneficiary of the trust, I want a full audit of all Cooper Enterprises' assets and where they've gone."Third, gather every bit of evidence of Emily using the Cooper family's name for her own benefit these past four years."Sophia looked up at me. "Claire, are you planning to—""I'm taking back what's mine."Sophia slowly closed her briefcase and gave me a smile.Her smile was tinged with concern, but mostly it was the kind of unspoken understanding only old friends have."Fine," she said. "But there's one condition.""What?" I asked."You need to focus on getting better first." She stood up, walked to the door, and glanced back at me. "Claire, you've lost forty pounds."The door closed behind her.I rested my head on the pillow and read Mom's letter again.The wind was blowing outside.The curtain in my hospital room fluttered.For the first time in four years, someone told me to get better first.

Chapter 12