Hillbilly Rockstar Read Online Free PDF Page A

Directors that we must close your account." The manager continued.
    Trace came out of his fog and sat up in the chair, his booted foot clomping to the floor. "Close my account? Why?"
    "Mr. Harper, over the past three years you have overdrawn with us multiple times. Your account is overdrawn again and as I stated on the phone, your mortgage is behind by a year." Mike opened a folder and took out papers, fee notices, copies of canceled checks and loan documents that had been red-stamped PAST DUE.
    "I know I've been overdrawn before, but I've always made good on it. Let me see this so-called mortgage." A cold sweat began to trickle down Trace's neck.
    Mike pulled the loan document from the package and handed it to Trace, reaching across his cluttered desk. "Yes, you have paid everything back, but it has taken you some time. Once we waited almost six months before your account was in the black. As far as the mortgage goes, I'm afraid we're going to have to start foreclosure procedures on the property within the month."
    Trace could not believe this man, this bank manager who didn't know him from Adam, had the nerve to say that their bank didn't want his business anymore. He took the stack of papers and began flipping through them. Sure enough, it was a mortgage on his grandparents' property. He flipped to the back of the package, saw the amount, and the signatures.
    "Mr. Harper, the Board has decided that we've done all we can for you. We waived your fees in the past, and we could have started foreclosure as early as eight months ago. It was only due to the issues with the economy and so many of our customers requesting assistance with their mortgages that yours was overlooked. But we can't overlook this any longer. As of today you owe this bank fifteen thousand dollars in past due payments and fees, plus the balance on the mortgage."
    "What the hell?" Trace stared at the amount borrowed and the signatures on the back page of the loan packet. "She borrowed seventy thousand dollars on my property? How the hell can she do that and I not know about it?" He slammed the papers on the manager's desk.
    Mike picked them up and looked at the signature page. "Mrs. Harper took out this mortgage four years ago. She produced documentation that the property she put up for collateral was jointly owned. Yes, there is a power of attorney here, signed by you, stating that she could handle personal financial matters for you during this time. That's why your signature wasn't required. All the paperwork was in order."
    "Damn, I knew I should have listened to Charlie. I should not have signed that power of attorney over to her." He stood and began pacing the office. The bank fees, fine. There was no doubt that they were his fault. He liked to party, he enjoyed going out, he enjoyed buying beautiful women beautiful things. But the mortgage, the mortgage on the one thing that meant the most to him in the entire world, that he did not do.
    "That mortgage is not mine." Anger shot through him. He banged his hand down on the desk over the stack of papers and his voice was cold, hard. "My ex-wife, she did this. I did give her the power-of-attorney, but the property was no jointly owned. She never should have been able to take out a mortgage. We divorced almost two years ago."
    Mike stood as well, and met Trace eye-to-eye over his desk. "I understand you're upset, Mr. Harper. But if you do not calm down, I will call security and have you escorted out. Am I clear?"
    Trace felt waves of anger flowing through him -- anger at his ex-wife, anger at the bank, anger at himself. He couldn't breathe. He wanted to tell this fat, balding little waste of skin what he could do with the debt. Then he wanted to do it again, to Trixie, his no-good thief, liar and cheat of an ex-wife. Since that wasn't going to happen -- at least, not right now -- he sat down, not saying a word.
    "Wonderful." Mike returned to his seat as well and flipped through a printed spreadsheet.