Two hundred thousand dollars was enough to quiet his brother’s most aggressive creditors for now.

He did not realize that by listing those debts under oath, he was legally tying himself to Ryan’s fraudulent schemes.

He did not notice the blue folder sitting quietly on the corner of Marcus’s desk.

That folder contained the contact information for a federal financial investigator we had consulted earlier.

It also contained a copy of the forged signature Linda had used to access my mother’s banking records.

Our forensic accountant had already flagged the transaction.

All we needed was Ethan’s signed confession of his joint liabilities to link him directly to the fraud.

“This section asks for private loans, too,” Ethan said, pointing to a clause on page two.

“Every single one,” I said. “If you hide even one dollar of debt, the agreement is void and the check is canceled.”

Ethan pulled a silver pen from his breast pocket.

“I need a minute to list them all,” he said.

“Take your time,” I said.

He began to write, his handwriting messy and hurried on the clean white paper.