Chapter 7 - Home for the Holidays
Lauren filed for divorce after Christmas.
Her attorney requested temporary sole physical custody based on Colin’s treatment of Piper, the false statements he made about Lauren, and the circumstances on the porch.
Supervised visitation was ordered while evaluators reviewed the case.
The deed investigation became a separate matter.
Digital records showed Colin uploaded the forged signature from a scanned deployment form. Messages between him and a loan broker confirmed he knew Lauren had not approved the transfer.
Brooke provided the remaining conversations.
Rebecca testified about the lies her son told the family.
Colin lost the marketing position he had used to present himself as financially successful. The proposed business disappeared with the home equity he never owned.
Lauren did not remain at Fort Carson.
She requested a family-stability assignment and received a position closer to home. The change cost her a promotion opportunity, but this time the choice was hers—not something Colin could later use as evidence that she did not care.
Piper began seeing a child therapist.
For weeks, she asked whether people could be removed from homes for being bad.
Lauren answered carefully.
“You belong with people who keep you safe.”
On Christmas morning, they placed the silver star on the tree together.
The pink backpack had been unpacked.
The wet boots were replaced.
The brown teddy bear received a new knitted scarf from Rebecca, who visited only after asking Lauren’s permission.
Near the front door, the wooden sign still read Home for the Holidays.
Lauren had considered throwing it away.
Instead, she kept it.
Colin had treated the house as a prize to seize, refinance, and refill with different people.
Lauren finally understood that a home was not proved by a deed alone.
It was proved by what happened when someone vulnerable stood outside the door.
The afternoon she returned, Colin left his three-year-old daughter in the snow because he believed Lauren’s absence gave him ownership over everything she had built.
He was wrong about the house.
Wrong about the money.
Wrong about Brooke.
Most of all, he was wrong about Piper.
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When her daughter whispered, “Daddy said we don’t belong here anymore,” Lauren thought she had arrived home too late.
In truth, she arrived at the exact moment Colin’s lies could no longer survive the front porch.
