The Judge Asked for Records While Chue Asked for Sympathy

On the morning of the hearing, I left my gold earrings at home.

Then I went back and put them on.

My mother had given them to me when my first book contract cleared. I did not need to look poor to make the loan real.

At the Winnebago County courthouse, people stood in separate lines holding folders much like ours. Somewhere behind us, a child asked when they could go home.

Odette checked our room number.

"Answer what's asked," she said. "If you don't know, say so."

Chue arrived with a lawyer. He had finally hired one after weeks of saying only guilty people needed help.

Yer came with her own counsel. She sat on the other side of the aisle from me. That hurt, even though it was right. She was a borrower in the case, and she needed someone whose duty was to her alone.

Chue leaned toward me before the judge entered.

"Hope your little business can afford all this."

I opened my folder to the tab marked PAYMENT HISTORY.

His lawyer's motion challenged my right to enforce the loan and disputed the default. The lawyer said his client believed payments had been made and wanted the complaint dismissed.

There were no witnesses giving long speeches. Most of the hearing concerned documents and what the filings did or did not show.

Odette had brought the original note for inspection. The endorsement named me. The recorded assignment matched the mortgage identified in the complaint.

Chue's lawyer examined them.

"The purchase price was below the balance," he said.

The judge asked how that supported dismissal.

The lawyer turned a page. He moved on to the payment dispute.

Odette pointed to the verified ledger and the seller's records. She explained that the scheduled-payment printouts did not establish completed payments. Chue could seek records and contest amounts through the proper steps.

The judge denied the motion to dismiss.

It was not a final foreclosure judgment. There was no sale date. The case would continue, with deadlines for answers and discovery.

Still, I watched Chue's face change when the judge set those dates.

The court had not asked how much noise he could make. It had asked what supported his claim.

Odette put the note back in its protective sleeve. I noticed how gently she handled it. The paper had started as a promise between a seller and two buyers. All the hurt around it had not changed the need to preserve it or account for it with care.

In the hallway, he blocked my path for half a second.

"You enjoyed that."

"Move, Chue."

His lawyer touched his elbow, and he moved.

Outside, Yer stood beside a concrete planter. Tiny weeds had pushed through the old soil.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"I hate this," she said.

"I know."

"I hate that I needed a judge to tell me the papers were real."

I almost reached for her hand. I waited instead.

She reached for mine.

Our mother's dental appointment was that afternoon. I drove her, and she insisted on paying the bill from the money she had finally stopped giving Chue.

"This is ordinary money," she said, pressing the card into the receptionist's hand. "For an ordinary thing I need."

On the way home, she asked whether buying the loan had made me happy.

"No."

"Will getting paid make you happy?"

"It'll make me safe. That's enough for this part."

The repayment case moved slowly. Our lawyer asked for records of the outside account. Chue first answered that he had no relevant statements. Then Yer's joint account records supplied the receiving firm's name and the matching account digits.

The lawyer pursued the records through formal discovery, including a subpoena to the firm.

Nobody guessed a password. Nobody searched Chue's phone while he slept.

We waited for records he could not rewrite on his kitchen printer.

During that wait, I hired a blind proofreader for a new history project. She found a heading I had spaced badly and sent it back without softening the note.

I paid her invoice that day.

It was a relief to have a mistake that I could simply fix.

In July, Yer received a conditional refinance offer. The lender required a full review of the disputed debt, proof of her income, and a signed agreement about ownership before closing.

"Conditional," she told me. "I'm learning to read the whole word."

Chue told relatives the investment money had been lost and that pressing him would only hurt Yer.

We did not answer that claim in the message group.

At the end of the month, our lawyer called me to her office. A response had arrived from the investment firm with a declaration identifying the records.

She placed the first statement on the table.

The account had one owner's name, and its available cash balance was $19,240.