“Mr.
Garrett, your client intercepted my parents’ income for eight months, coerced my mother into signing documents she didn’t understand, and had two elderly people sleeping in a storage shed.
And his offer is twenty-five hundred dollars a month and a bedroom.”
A careful pause.
“Mr.
Serrano, litigation is expensive and uncertain.
A judge may not—”
“We’ll see each other tomorrow,” Alvin said.
“Bring your client.”
He ended the call.
His phone buzzed again immediately.
This time it was Inez.
“Garrett called you, didn’t he,” she said.
It wasn’t a question.
“Two minutes ago.”
“He called me first.
I told him the same thing you did.” She sounded almost satisfied.
“Alvin, I need you to know something before tomorrow.
I found one more document in the property records.
Derek filed a second deed amendment three weeks ago — a quiet title action.
If it had gone through, it would have extinguished your parents’ right to even contest the transfer.”
Alvin’s hand tightened on the phone.
“It didn’t go through,” Inez said.
“The clerk flagged it for a procedural error.
But he tried.” A pause.
“He really tried to bury them.”
“I know,” Alvin said.
Outside, the flower shop woman had arranged a small display of yellow roses in the window.
The courtroom was smaller than Alvin expected.
Judge Harmon was a compact woman in her sixties with reading glasses on a chain and no patience for theater.
She had reviewed the filings the night before.
Alvin could tell by the way she looked at Derek’s attorney before he had said a single word.
Inez presented first.
She was precise and unhurried.
Original deed.
Fraudulent transfer.
Notarized signatures obtained under false pretenses — Veronica’s sister as notary.
The forged will.
The intercepted bank transfers.
Manuel’s handwritten notes, authenticated.
Eight months of financial records.
She laid each document on the table as she spoke, one at a time, like cards in a hand she had been holding for a very long time.
Derek sat beside Garrett in a gray suit.
He kept his eyes forward.
Veronica was not in the room.
When Inez finished, Judge Harmon looked at Garrett.
“Counsel.”
Garrett stood.
He argued that the deed transfer had been a voluntary estate planning decision, properly executed.
That Carmen’s signature was valid.
