Chapter 6 - The Real Reason for the Trap
General Hale looked toward the packed baby bag beside the staircase.
“Where were you planning to send Captain Lawson?”
Carol answered with cold satisfaction.
“Back to the barracks, where she belongs.”
“With a one-year-old child?”
“She chose the Army over her family.”
Harper’s exhaustion turned into something sharper.
“I chose a lawful assignment.”
“You left my son alone.”
“Your son is thirty-three years old.”
Tyler slammed his palm against the island.
“This isn’t about the Army.”
“No?” Harper asked. “Then why now?”
He looked away.
General Hale noticed the stack of mail beside the wine bottle.
One envelope bore a red FINAL NOTICE stamp.
Tyler reached for it.
Hale’s aide picked it up first and handed it to Harper.
The notice came from Crestline National Bank.
Their home-equity loan was ninety days delinquent.
Harper had never agreed to a home-equity loan.
She opened the second envelope.
Another warning.
This one referenced a business called Lawson Ridge Investments.
Tyler had borrowed against the house.
More than two hundred thousand dollars.
Harper’s signature appeared on the application.
It looked almost perfect.
Almost.
Her rank had been written as “Major.”
Harper had never held that rank.
Tyler had copied an old signature and guessed at her current title.
“You forged my name,” she whispered.
Tyler’s face tightened.
Carol moved between them.
“He was trying to build something for this family.”
“With my house?”
“With his future.”
General Hale’s disgust became visible.
The DNA test was not designed only to end the marriage.
May you like
If Harper left in disgrace and signed the papers Tyler had prepared, he could keep control of the property long enough to hide the fraudulent loan.
👉 But the forged loan was only the first financial betrayal waiting inside Tyler’s locked office.
