Title: The Power of Attorney prompted by Michael Poole

Genre: Legal Thriller / Family Drama
Setting: A small coastal town in the U.S.–Canada border region (part of the North American Free Trade Area).

Plot Summary

When Evan Mercer, a struggling writer in his forties, returns home to visit his aging parents, he finds his sister Clara, a charming but coldly calculating woman, already living in their family home. Months later, their father dies under what seems like natural circumstances — but the day after the funeral, Evan discovers he’s been written out of the will entirely.

Clara now holds Power of Attorney over their mother, Margaret, a once-strong woman now showing signs of frailty and confusion. Evan learns from a family friend that Clara’s been whispering lies about him — tales of instability, addiction, and mental illness — until their parents believed he was dangerous.

When Evan’s mother signs a new Power of Attorney giving Clara total control, he suspects manipulation. Then the eviction notices arrive: Clara claims the apartment Evan’s lived in for years — property once promised to him by his father — is part of the estate she now controls.

Evan hires Sarah Connelly, a sharp but jaded estate litigation attorney, who’s just lost a case against a powerful family. She takes Evan’s case reluctantly — until she realizes Clara’s lawyer is Richard Vale, her old mentor and nemesis.

As Sarah digs deeper, she uncovers a trail of forged medical records, deleted emails, and coerced psychiatric evaluations — evidence suggesting Clara orchestrated everything to seize the family fortune. But proving undue influence in court requires more than suspicion: it demands evidence that an aging parent was no longer of sound mind and that their will was the product of manipulation.

When Margaret dies unexpectedly, Clara moves to sell everything, and Evan faces homelessness. Desperate, he breaks into the family law office to recover a hidden file — a recorded conversation between his father and the lawyer revealing that Evan was supposed to inherit half the estate.

Now, with the file in hand and Sarah at his side, Evan must decide:
Fight in court, risking everything in a drawn-out legal war…
Or leak the truth to the press and destroy his family’s name forever.

Themes

Elder exploitation and the fragility of trust within families.

Moral grayness in the legal system — how “justice” often depends on money and timing.

Slander and isolation — how lies can quietly dismantle relationships.

The haunting question: Does truth matter when the law says otherwise?

Ending (with a twist)

In the courtroom’s final act, just as Sarah presents the recording, Clara collapses — revealing she’s been secretly medicating their mother for years. But the judge rules the Power of Attorney valid at the time of signing, leaving Evan with nothing except a moral victory.

Months later, a letter arrives from Clara’s attorney: she’s left him half the estate in her will. Guilt, not justice, has finally balanced the scales.