"Dad, Grandpa didn't raise quitters. Neither did you."
Bill Hendricks clapped me on the shoulder. "Jake, your grandfather would be proud."
"Tomorrow we restore justice," Sarah said with quiet confidence.
That night, Sarah's subpoenas had uncovered Karen's email trail showing premeditation and conspiracy. One email to Dr. Stanton read, "Once we get Morrison's land, we split the profit."
His reply was, "Are you sure this is legal?"
Karen's response: "Legal is what we make it."
Tommy's latest video had reached 847,000 views with 94% positive comments from across America. As I sat on my porch that Thursday evening, watching the sunset paint the Front Range purple and gold, I felt something I hadn't experienced in months. Hope. Tomorrow we'd find out what justice looked like.
Friday morning brought panic to Karen's camp when she received Sarah Chen's emergency injunction filing. Karen called an emergency HOA board meeting for 7:00 a.m., a desperate attempt to move the auction forward.
"We need to hold the auction today," Karen told her remaining board members.
"Karen, we can't change the auction date now," Dr. Stanton protested. "People have made plans."
"We can do whatever we want. I'm the president," Karen snapped.
Her own attorney, David Pierce, called with bad news. "Karen, this injunction is serious. You could face criminal charges."
"You said the covenant extension was legal," Karen reminded him.
"I said it might be legal. This is completely different," Pierce replied before withdrawing as her attorney effective immediately.
Karen frantically tried to cover her tracks, ordering Jennifer Walsh to delete incriminating emails from the HOA server.
"Karen, deleting emails could be obstruction of justice," Jennifer warned.
"Jennifer, your job depends on this," Karen threatened.
But Jennifer had already forwarded copies of everything to her personal email account.
In desperation, Karen offered county clerk Lisa Martinez $5,000 to backdate an auction permit.
"Ma'am, that's attempted bribery," the clerk said, secretly recording the conversation on her phone.
The clerk immediately contacted the sheriff's office, which opened a criminal investigation.
When Secure Shield Security reviewed the legal documents Sarah had filed, they canceled their contract immediately.
"Ma'am, we can't provide security for potentially illegal activities," the supervisor explained.