The ship docked in Nassau at seven the next morning. Mom was gone when I woke up. She’d left a note on the hotel stationery in her careful, loopy handwriting.
“Thank you for letting me sleep. I’ll talk to your father today. I love you. I always have. — Mom”
I called Patricia Gaines from the pier, standing in the shade of the cruise terminal while vendors sold straw hats and conch shells.
“Millie,” she said. “I read your email. First of all, your lien is valid. I checked the Secretary of State’s database this morning, and your UCC-1 is active for five years from the filing date. That’s two more years. No legitimate lender is going to take that equipment as collateral without a release from you, or without you being paid in full.”
“What if Dad just signs the papers anyway?”
“He can sign whatever he wants with Brandon. But he can’t give the lender a first lien on equipment that already has your lien on it. Any lender that does a basic UCC search will find you.” She paused. “If they somehow got a line of credit and pledged that equipment anyway, they’d be in a very bad position. So would your father.”
“And the loan itself?”
“Your note is in default. He stopped making payments almost two years ago. Under the terms you signed, you have the right to declare the full balance due and demand payment. With interest and the missed payments, he owes you about $36,800. You could also enforce your security interest. In plain English, you could take the equipment.”
I closed my eyes. “I don’t want to take my father’s excavators, Patricia.”
“I know you don’t,” she said gently. “But you need to know you can. Because the man your father’s about to go into business with is counting on the fact that you won’t.”
“What would you do?”
“Honestly? I’d send your father a formal demand letter. Not to be cruel. To put him on notice before he signs anything with Brandon. It needs to be on the record that your lien exists and your loan is due. If he still goes ahead, at least he can’t say he didn’t know.”
“Can you send it today?”
“I can email you a draft in an hour. You can show it to him yourself.”
“Patricia, there’s one more thing,” I said. “Brandon owes a woman named Kelsey Morrow $23,400 from a judgment. If he becomes a 49% owner of Dad’s company, can she come after his share?”
Patricia was quiet for a moment.
“Millie, if Brandon owns 49% of an LLC and has an unpaid judgment, his creditors can try to get a charging order against his interest. That means they’d get whatever money comes to him from the company, until the judgment is paid. And if he’s been taking money from people the way that complaint describes, I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my father’s bank accounts.”
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