Chapter 6 - My Sister’s Real Debt
Kane was taken downtown before sunrise.
My mother refused to answer questions without a lawyer.
By breakfast, the story had already begun spreading through the family.
Not the truth.
Mom’s version.
Olivia had humiliated her grieving mother.
Olivia’s military friends had terrorized the family.
Olivia’s powerful fiancé had arranged a police raid over a private financial disagreement.
Three cousins texted me before nine.
One aunt called Mason “dangerous.”
I blocked nobody.
I saved everything.
At 10:30 a.m., Hsu met us in a secure conference room at the federal building.
Kane had talked.
He claimed Sienna contacted him four months earlier asking whether Dad’s trust could be challenged.
He told her no.
Then she told him why she needed the money.
“How much?” I asked.
Hsu pushed a statement across the table.
$612,000.
I stared at it.
Mason whistled softly.
“She owes over six hundred thousand dollars?”
“Between private lenders, credit cards, business debt, and what appears to be an unregulated investment group.”
“What investment group?”
Hsu turned another page.
NORTHSTAR CAPITAL PARTNERS.
I had heard the name before.
Two years earlier, one of our command briefings had mentioned Northstar in connection with defense-industry bribery and money laundering. Nothing had ever been proved publicly.
I felt a cold pressure behind my ribs.
“Why is Northstar lending money to my sister?”
“We don’t know.”
“Does she know what they are?”
“Maybe not.”
Mason leaned back. “Or maybe they didn’t choose her randomly.”
Hsu nodded.
That was the part none of us wanted to say out loud.
My clearance.
Mason’s position.
My father’s old contacts.
A financially desperate relative was not just a family problem.
She was an access point.
“What did Kane do?” I asked.
“He helped prepare the forged beneficiary documents. He says he believed your mother and sister had your verbal permission.”
I laughed.
“Does he also believe I died three weeks ago?”
Hsu almost smiled.
“He claims Sienna provided that document herself.”
“Where is she?”
“We found her car at a parking garage near the airport.”
“Flight?”
“No record of her boarding.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photo appeared.
Sienna sitting in the passenger seat of a car.
She looked terrified.
A man’s hand rested on her shoulder.
Below the picture was a message.
YOUR SISTER OWES US.
A second message arrived.
SO DOES YOUR FATHER.
I showed Hsu.
His face hardened.
“My father is dead,” I said.
May you like
A third message came.
THAT DOESN’T MEAN HIS DEBT DIED WITH HIM.
