But all of this was nothing compared to what I'd learned from my cousin. I'd been planning to call Cami later on tonight to give her the full story. I would've called her even sooner except I'd been too busy crying.
Now, I saw no reason to put it off.
But where to begin?Finally, I settled on, "See, the thing is, Brody's been lying to me all along."
Chapter 53
Arden
When I finished talking, Cami stared in obvious disbelief. "He didn't."
With a bitter laugh, I replied, "Oh, but he did."
In spite of everything I'd been led to believe, Brody had purchased the house under less than honorable circumstances. And, as if that weren't bad enough, he'd known all along about my connection to the place.
He'd known. And he hadn't cared.
Or worse, he'd cared only enough to buy the house out from under me as some sort of twisted revenge for what had happened back in high school.
Either way, he'd been lying to me from the start. And he wasstilllying to me now.
Cami frowned. "But are you sure?"
"Of course I’m sure."
This should've been obvious. After all, I'd just spent the last hour telling her everything I'd learned from Jason when he'd stopped by just last night.
Turns out, selling the house hadn't been Jason's idea at all. Instead, he'd been forced to sell when a prospective buyer had started making trouble with the city.
On the couch, Cami was saying, "But you can't betotallysure. I mean, Jason has lied to you before, right?"
I knew what she was getting at. "You mean about the repairs? Yeah, I know. But this time it's different."
On the couch, Cami still looked unconvinced. "How so?"
"Because this time, there's paperwork to prove it."
"Paperwork?" She leaned forward. "Did you see it with your own eyes? Because I'm just saying, maybe Jason's lying aboutthat, too."
I had to give Cami credit. She was working awfully hard to come up with a happy ending to this story – an ending thatdidn'tinvolve Brody being a total lying ass-hat.
Sadly, I could actually relate.
I'd gone through the same process last night when Jason had started weaving his tale of woe. I'd flat-out refused to believe him – until he'd gone out to his car and returned with proof.And plenty of it.
"Wait here," I told Cami as I got to my feet.
I returned a minute later with a big stack of papers. With a sound of disgust, I tossed them onto the sofa, where I'd been sitting.
As I sank down onto the nearby armchair, I gestured toward the scattered paperwork. "Go ahead. Pick one. See for yourself."
With obvious concern, Cami picked up a random sheet of paper and asked, "So, what are these, anyway?"
"Letters from the city," I said. "Andfrom Brody's lawyer. And a few fines. And notices. And all kinds of stuff. None of it's good."
And that was putting it mildly. Together, all of those documents told the full story of what I'd already explained to Cami.
When it came to the house, Jason had been backed into a corner. If he didn't get the property up to code within sixty days, the house would be condemned, which meant that it would surely be torn down – probably sooner rather than later.
