Chapter 4 - ABOUT THE HOUSE, JASON
Before sunrise, I placed an envelope on the kitchen counter.
Inside were three documents.
A copy of the deed I had signed.
The title report listing Daniel Reed as ninety-nine-percent owner.
A notice exercising Daniel’s contractual option to reacquire the transferred one-percent interest.
The letter began:
About the house, Jason…
I wrote that the papers our father prepared transferred every interest I personally owned.
Exactly one percent.
I explained that Daniel’s ownership was recorded months earlier and that the title could have been checked through ordinary county records.
I also explained the repurchase clause.
Jason had paid nothing.
Daniel was exercising his option for the same amount.
Nothing.
At seven in the morning, my parents returned with Jason and two of his friends.
Jason carried boxes.
My mother brought another tray of blueberry muffins.
My father used the key I left beneath the porch light.
His shoes struck the empty hardwood with a hollow crack.
Jason walked from room to room opening cabinets as though furniture might be hiding inside them.
“Where is everything?”
My mother stood in the kitchen still holding the muffins.
My father found the envelope.
He read the first paragraph twice.
Then the color drained from his face.
A black SUV turned into the driveway.
Rebecca Sloan, the title officer who had handled our restructuring, stepped out with a mobile notary and Daniel’s attorney.
Jason came outside gripping the title report.
“What is this?”
Rebecca looked at the deed in his hand.
“It appears to be a transfer of Ms. Reed’s one-percent tenancy-in-common interest.”
“My father said she owned the house.”
“Your father did not order the title search.”
Jason shook the ring of keys.
“She signed it over to me.”
“She transferred what she owned.”
“All of it.”
“All of her one percent.”
My father pushed between them.
“This is some trick Daniel created after the signing.”
Rebecca opened the county record on her tablet.
“Mr. Reed’s ninety-nine-percent ownership was recorded nine weeks before the wedding.”
Daniel’s attorney handed Jason the option notice.
“Under the recorded co-ownership agreement, Daniel is exercising his right to reacquire your interest for the consideration you paid.”
Jason stared at the document.
“I’m not selling.”
“You accepted the interest subject to the recorded agreement.”
“I didn’t agree to that.”
“Real-property restrictions recorded before your transfer remain attached to the interest whether you read them or not.”
May you like
Jason looked toward my father.
For the first time, the confident man with the folder had nothing prepared.
