Chapter 5 - The Investigation DeepensPriscilla's investigation into the fraudulent listing moved quickly once the formal cease-and-desist reached Daniel Ross's brokerage, prompting the firm's own internal compliance department to launch a review that, within two weeks, produced findings considerably more troubling than the original forged documents alone.
"There's a pattern here," Priscilla told me, during our third meeting, spreading a new set of documents across her desk. "This isn't the first property Celeste Monroe has attempted to move through irregular channels."
"What do you mean?"
"The brokerage's compliance review found two other transactions, both within the past eighteen months, where Celeste served as the listing agent under circumstances that, in retrospect, raised similar red flags — expedited timelines, unusually motivated sellers who, upon follow-up, seemed vague or inconsistent about their own reasons for selling, and pricing structures that moved property below documented market value in ways that benefited a specific buyer significantly more than the seller."
"Do you think Andrew was involved in those transactions too?"
"One of them," Priscilla said. "A property in the next county over, sold roughly a year ago, where the buyer's LLC traces back, through several layers, to an entity Andrew co-owns with two business partners. The seller in that transaction was an elderly widow named Ruth Callahan, who, according to the compliance review, has since expressed confusion about the actual terms of her sale, though she signed off on everything at the time."
I felt something cold settle into my stomach, understanding the fuller shape of what Andrew and Celeste had apparently been running, quietly, for well over a year before I'd ever discovered any of it.
"Is Ruth Callahan aware of any of this? Has anyone reached out to her?"
"The brokerage's compliance team is reaching out directly, given the pattern they've identified. I've also recommended, given the overlap with your own case, that you might consider connecting with her, or at least being kept informed as their investigation proceeds. If there's a genuine pattern of predatory real estate practices, it strengthens your own case considerably, and it may help protect other potential victims going forward."
I thought about Ruth Callahan, an elderly widow I'd never met, potentially deceived through the same careful, sophisticated methods Andrew and Celeste had attempted to use against me — the difference being, I suspected, that I had discovered the fraud in progress, walking into my own dining room mid-open-house, while Ruth's sale had apparently already closed, the damage, if any existed, already largely done.
"I want to help her," I said. "If there's anything I can do."
"I'll coordinate with the brokerage's compliance attorney," Priscilla said. "In the meantime, I want to focus on securing your own position clearly. We've filed the police report regarding the forged documents. I've also formally recorded, with the county, that Westfield remains sole and separate property, entirely outside any marital asset pool, which protects you regardless of how the divorce itself eventually resolves."
"What about the actual criminal exposure? For Andrew, for Celeste?"
"That's still developing," Priscilla said. "The district attorney's office has been notified, given the forgery involved. Whether they pursue charges will depend on several factors — the strength of the authentication evidence, whether Ruth Callahan's situation reveals additional fraud, and, frankly, whether Andrew and Celeste's attorneys attempt to negotiate some kind of resolution before matters proceed further."
I left that meeting feeling the full, expanding weight of exactly what I'd stumbled into — not simply a betrayed wife discovering her husband's affair, but the unwitting discoverer of what appeared to be a genuine, ongoing pattern of real estate fraud, targeting vulnerable property owners through carefully forged documentation and expedited, predatory sales.
I drove home that evening — to Westfield, secured now behind new locks, entirely mine, protected finally through Priscilla's careful legal work — and thought about Aunt Evelyn, about her quiet, deliberate insistence on leaving the house to me solely, separately, protected from exactly the kind of situation I now understood she must have, on some level, anticipated might eventually arise.
May you like
She had protected me before I'd even understood I would need protecting.
I sat in my car in the driveway for a long moment before going inside, feeling something between gratitude and grief settle over me in equal measure, and thought, quietly, thank you, Evelyn. I understand now, more than I ever did while you were alive, exactly what you were trying to give me.
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