Chapter 9 - The Loan Application
I placed the rejected home-equity application on the counter.
Thomas’s face changed.
Marta read the amount.
Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
“What was this for?” she asked.
Thomas said nothing.
I pointed to my forged signature.
“He tried to borrow against this apartment.”
Marta looked at him.
“Why?”
“I needed temporary liquidity.”
“For what?”
“The consulting business.”
Thomas had started a side company the previous year.
He told me it was small.
A few clients.
Minimal costs.
The loan application named the borrower as TMR Development.
I had never heard of it.
Marta had.
Her reaction gave her away.
“You said the project was already funded,” she whispered.
Thomas closed his eyes.
“What project?” I asked.
Marta looked frightened now.
Not embarrassed.
Frightened.
She had invested money.
Her retirement savings.
Thomas promised to build luxury townhomes outside Denver.
He showed her architectural plans, land contracts, and investor projections.
He told her my apartment would secure the development loan.
He said I had agreed.
She transferred nearly three hundred thousand dollars.
There was no development.
No land purchase.
No construction permit.
TMR Development existed only on paper.
May you like
Thomas had taken his mother’s money.
And tried to use my apartment to cover the gap.
