Chapter 7 - JENNIFER
Jennifer cooperated quickly.
She was terrified.
Greg told her Melissa knew about the loan.
Said Melissa was too sick to attend.
Jennifer only needed to confirm basic information.
Bad decision.
Potentially criminal.
She admitted it.
Then she provided texts.
Greg:
Just say you’re Melissa. They barely check.
Jennifer:
This feels wrong.
Greg:
It’s my wife’s money anyway.
That sentence mattered.
Ownership.
Greg believed marriage entitled him to everything Melissa had.
Jennifer said Greg had been desperate for money.
Why?
Gambling.
Not casinos every night.
Online sports betting.
Debt.
Nearly $180,000.
Suddenly everything aligned.
Melissa’s inheritance wasn’t funding investments.
It was covering losses.
Then he borrowed more.
Then forged more.
Then became violent whenever questions threatened exposure.
Jennifer cried.
“I didn’t know about Leo.”
Mom answered:
“You knew about me?”
Silence.
Jennifer knew Greg was controlling.
Knew he yelled.
Knew he took Melissa’s phone.
She did not know physical abuse extent.
Again:
People see fragments.
Then choose whether to look closer.
Jennifer hadn’t.
Neither had many others.
Then she gave us one more thing.
A storage-unit number.
Greg kept records there.
Why tell us?
“He threatened me too.”
The unit contained betting statements.
Loan papers.
Cash withdrawals.
And a small box labeled:
LEO.
Inside were my school records.
Medical insurance documents.
Photographs.
And applications.
One document made Mom sit down.
A life insurance application.
For me.
Not completed.
Not active.
No sinister payout.
But Greg had been investigating whether he could insure me.
Why?
Jennifer knew.
Greg planned to borrow against family insurance products as part of a broader desperate financial strategy.
Still awful.
But not murder.
Then underneath was another form.
Petition for guardianship.
Greg had been researching how to gain greater legal authority over me.
Why?
My father David had left me something nobody had mentioned yet.
A trust.
And I would gain partial access when I turned eighteen.
Greg knew about it.
Mom didn’t know its current value.
The next statement answered.
$612,418.
May you like
Greg had spent years stealing from my mother.
Now he had started planning how to reach me.
