I sat motionless in the leather armchair and watched a yellow leaf float past the third-floor window.

“Is there any way to settle this without putting my parents on a court docket?” I asked.

“Not if you want your forty-five thousand dollars back and your front door open to you,” Dalton said.

I reached down and ran a finger over the cold edge of my silver thumb ring.

“Go ahead and file the paperwork,” I said.

Dalton took an official county document form out of his center drawer.

“Before I notarize this civil complaint, we need proof of how that bank power of attorney got stamped,” Dalton said.