“He’s out of time and out of cash,” she said.

“If you look into your credit, he threatens to wreck your military career with a false report.

“If you won’t sign the house over to Chloe, he cooks up a misconduct file for your promotion board.

“He expects you to give up your only asset to save his reputation and your rank.”

I opened the green case folder and took out the yellowed copy of the mortgage.

The black ink of the fake signature stood out sharply on the pale paper.