Three years ago my father had quietly hung a huge fraudulent debt on the property to pay for his suburban lifestyle.

He needed me to sign the house over to Chloe so the title would move within the family before any bank auditor found the forged loan.

He’d taken the forty-five thousand dollars from my deployment account to make the monthly payments on that hidden mortgage.

Morales picked up the yellowed document and put it in her green military case folder.

“This isn’t just a family fight over a house anymore,” Morales said.