The collector’s lawyer called Monday morning. I expected him to ask about the china, but instead he asked whether I knew who had signed the original purchase agreement for my brother’s business deal. I said no. He told me my brother had used the $40,000 as part of a much larger investment, and the paperwork showed he’d promised repayment from the sale of a property that wasn’t even his. I asked what property. He gave me my mother’s old house. I reminded him that house had been sold years ago. He said he knew. Then he told me the strange part: my brother had provided a copy of a document claiming he still had an ownership interest in it.
I called my brother that afternoon and asked him about the document. He immediately asked whether the collector had contacted me. That was the first time in two years he admitted there was a problem. He said the deal had gone wrong and that he’d been trying to fix it before anyone found out. I asked why he’d kept telling me the money was tied up in a business purchase. He said he didn’t want me worrying. Then I asked about the new car, the Egypt trip, and all the other things he’d bought while telling me he couldn’t repay me. He said those had nothing to do with it. I reminded him that I had sold something sentimental because he promised he’d return every dollar in three months. He said, “I never asked you to sell it.”
That night I received an email from the collector’s attorney with the paperwork attached. My brother hadn’t borrowed $40,000. He had borrowed $180,000. My money was only one part of it. The agreement showed that he’d been making payments from several different accounts, and one of those accounts had my name listed as an authorized signer. I had never opened it. I called the bank and asked when the account was created. The answer was the same month my brother first asked me for the $40,000. Then the banker told me there was a second document attached to the account — a personal guarantee. The signature at the bottom looked like mine. But the date on it was three weeks before I ever sold the china. And beside my signature was the name of the person who had witnessed it…
