Chapter 7 - The Hostage of Entitlement
Deprived of my income, the reality of their financial situation set in for Daniel and Margaret with terrifying speed.
Within two weeks of the bank accounts being frozen, the mortgage payment on Margaret’s brick colonial went unpaid. The bank, which had been lenient with her in the past because they knew my dental clinics were backing her, immediately flagged the account.
Because the house was actually co-signed by me, I had the legal right to request a forced partition sale to claw back my equity. I sat in Marcus's office as he drafted the partition lawsuit.
"This is going to force them to sell the house," Marcus explained, licking an envelope. "Since Daniel has no income and Margaret only has her meager social security, neither of them can afford to buy out your half of the equity. The court will order the home to be liquidated."
"Where will they go?" I asked, feeling a brief, fleeting pang of guilt, which was quickly extinguished by a sharp twinge of pain in my ribs.
"Not your problem," Marcus said firmly. "They should have thought about their housing situation before they used you as a punching bag. And there's more. The IRS is starting to look into Margaret's taxes."
"Her taxes?"
"Yes," Marcus smiled. "Those 'monthly allowances' of six thousand dollars you sent her? You filed them as personal gifts, which is fine for you. But Margaret never declared them on her state tax returns, and she was claiming she had zero income to receive government healthcare subsidies. She’s been committing tax fraud for five years."
I stared at him, stunned. "Are you serious?"
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"The IRS doesn't play games, Evelyn. When they see a woman living in a million-dollar home, driving a luxury vehicle, and claiming she has no income while receiving over seventy thousand dollars a year in undocumented cash transfers... let's just say she's going to need a very good accountant. And she can't afford one anymore."
The trap was closing, and they had built it themselves.
