Boom - Sabrina Stark Page 0,94

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 about that, too."

I had to give Cami credit. She was working awfully hard to come up with a happy ending to this story – an ending that didn't involve 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. "And from 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.

The whole thing sounded like a total nightmare.

Cami studied the sheet of paper in her hand. "Three thousand dollars?"

I nodded. "And that's just one of the fines. There's a whole bunch of them."

She looked up. "So your cousin had to pay all of these?"

"Sure," I said. "Unless he made the repairs – or sold it to someone who would."

"So what are you saying?" she asked. "He sold it to avoid the fines?"

I nodded again. "He felt like he had to. Whether it was fines or repairs, there's no way he could've paid all of them." I paused. "Or should I say there's no way I could've paid all of them."

And yet, it would've been nice to have the chance to try.

I was still miffed at Jason for not telling me what had been going on. He'd claimed that he hadn't wanted to worry me during my final semester of college. But even now, I was finding this hard to believe.

Probably, Jason had been too afraid to admit that he'd let the place fall to pieces around him. And then, he'd been afraid of Brody.

That was a story in and of itself.

Cami's eyebrows furrowed. "So basically, your cousin was forced to sell?"

"Right." I'd explained all of this to Cami already in painful detail. But from the look on her face, it had taken the paperwork to truly drive the point home.

It had been the same way with me.

But there was one particular document that really broke my heart. I stood from the chair and reached toward the pile of papers. I began rummaging through it until I found the thing I was looking for.

It didn't take long for me to locate it, probably because in a fit of anger last night, I'd actually wadded it up and hurled it against the wall.

Oh sure, I'd tried to straighten it out afterward, because the document wasn't officially mine. But I'd done a sorry job of it, which meant that it stuck out like a sore thumb.

I handed it to Cami and waited in silence for her to read it.

The document was a personal letter from Jason to Brody, where Jason had practically begged Brody to buy only half of the house, meaning Jason's half, which would've left my half intact.

In the letter, Jason had confessed that his younger cousin – meaning me, of course – secretly owned half of the property and was, in Jason's owns words, "emotionally attached to the place."

In that same letter, Jason had gone into an awkward amount of detail on how I'd been working two jobs to keep up with the payments and how I'd lived there with my grandparents back in high school.

And on and on.

The letter was five pages long and pretty darn embarrassing, even if it was all true.

Embarrassing or not, I had to give Jason at least some credit for trying. Of course, his idea was totally impractical. I mean, why would Brody – or