At 10:26 a.m., I called the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office and reported people occupying my property without permission.
Ron laughed.
“You’re really calling the cops on family?”
“No,” I said. “I’m calling them on trespassers.”
Eleven minutes later, a sheriff’s SUV pulled into the driveway.
Deputy Aaron Mills asked everyone to step outside.
I showed him my license, the property-tax statement, and the certificate for the Hale Family Trust.
Margaret and I had placed the cabin in the trust twelve years earlier.
I was the sole trustee.
Claire would inherit only after my death.
Linda looked at Ron.
Ron stopped drinking.
Then he pulled a folded document from his pocket.
“Your son-in-law said this proves the cabin belongs to them.”
Deputy Mills read it and frowned.
It was a quitclaim deed transferring the cabin from the Hale Family Trust to Derek and Claire Mercer.
My signature was at the bottom.
So was Margaret’s.
I stared at the date.
Margaret had supposedly signed it six months earlier.
She had been dead for three years.
