But the letter wasn’t from the building inspector. It was from a law firm in LA. The same law firm who’d closed the deal between her and Henry Callahan.
Katie tore open the envelope, read the contents, and wanted to scream. He was suing her? Stuffing the letter back in the envelope as she walked back to her car, she fumed about how idiotic this was and how she could make it go away. It was as if something was trying to tell her to forget this project.
She turned and looked at the chapel. But she couldn’t. This was her ticket out so she could get her life back on track. This was something she could make right and beautiful again. Tears filled her eyes as she climbed back into her car. She hated going to Kas again because he was so preoccupied with Tabby. But at least he would know how to handle this before she completely flipped out.
Sweet Home Montana: Chapter Five
“He’s not suing you,” Kas said, leaning against the horse stall at the Lone Creek Ranch. “His soon-to-be ex-wife is suing you.”
Katie stared at Kasper, waiting for pearls of wisdom. Tabby had taken Tenterhook out for some exercise in the corral. Kas immediately met Katie in the barn when he’d seen her car come up the ranch driveway. It was good thing Trip had been walking out of the barn and told her that Kasper was still here. She probably would have broken down in tears otherwise.
“Can she do that? The transaction was legal,” Katie said. “All the paperwork was in order. My lawyer verified it. The property was in his name, not his wife’s.”
Kasper sighed and stuffed the letter back in the envelope. “It’s dirty play.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’re caught in a divorce battle. It happens when people get divorced and the lawyer’s trying to get the most they can out of each player. She’s probably contesting lots of his property transactions, most likely saying that it is community property and he had no right to sell it without her consent. California’s a community property state. If you purchase this property while they were married, it doesn’t really matter if only his name is on the deed.”
Katie began to pace, throwing her hands up in the air in disgust. “Should my lawyer have seen this?”
“He might’ve thought there could be a problem. But it would’ve only been a guess. If all the paperwork was in order when you signed, then the transaction is legal. What’s not even part of this equation, which for sure is none of your concern, is if all the money from the transaction is divvied up between the two of them. I’m guessing her lawyer is fighting the transaction because she thinks that he should of gotten more money for this property, which to be honest I’m inclined to agree with. I mean, you really got this for song, Katie. If you hadn’t bought it, I would’ve snatched it up myself.”
“In way you did since you’re the one that lent me the money.”
He chuckled. “Only so that I could get in on a little of the profits you make when this is complete. If it’s completed.”
“Course it will be completed. I’m not going to give up. I know I thought that when Caleb got hurt. But I’m going to finish this.”
“You have a cease and desist order, sis. You can’t just rip it up and throw it away like a parking ticket you don’t want to pay. They’re trying to get you to stop working on it so they can fight it out on their end.”
“But you said that has nothing to do with me.”
“It doesn’t. But until the cease and desist order is resolved, you can’t do anything on the property. Whether it’s legal or not is for the courts to decide.”
Katie frowned. “I don’t get it.”
“He’s trying to run you out of money. It’s a common tactic. If he stops construction and you have to spend all your money on legal fees to fight this, then you won’t have any money to finish the project. Then he can waltz in while you’re bleeding money and offer to buy it back from you for more than you bought it for. It looks like a win-win situation. But my guess is he had no clue what he was selling in the first place. He probably didn’t want his soon-to-be-ex to get wind of it.”
“And now that he does, he wants a piece of it.”
“His soon-to-be-ex sure does. Once they have it back, she can insist it be part of the divorce and have it sold for a much higher price so she gets more in the divorce settlement.”
“They can’t do this.”
“Well, actually they can. And they did. As I said, the legality of it is for the courts to decide. If you fight this, you’ll win. But you’ll also be out of money. Companies do this all the time. Sometimes they do it just to make another company go under. Just because they can.”
Katie’s shoulders sagged. “I should’ve seen this coming.”
Kas gave her a dirty look that was all too familiar. “Knock it off, will you? There’s no way you could’ve seen this coming. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. It’s a gamble. What you do next is up to you.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“Get an injunction against the cease and desist order. Make sure that you can continue construction while the legalities are being worked out. If that doesn’t work, you can offer to sell it back to them at a much higher price so that you not only recover your costs, but you can also profit from the deal.”
“What would you do?”
Her brother
