“You own the house, Brent, so you can make the mortgage payments.”

Brent jabbed his finger straight at his webcam.

“I’ll take you to small claims court,” he said, his voice pushing the audio meter into the red.

“You can’t just walk away from a household you helped keep up.”

Sarah cleared her throat, a crisp sound that stopped him mid-sentence.

“Mr.

Carter,” Sarah said, picking up her gold pen.

“Under Illinois property law, a person whose name isn’t on the property title has no legal obligation whatsoever to pay off a mortgage debt.”