Her office sat above a bakery, and I remember being grateful for the smell of fresh bread drifting up through the floorboards. Something ordinary and calming while I laid out documents that felt anything but ordinary.
Priya herself matched that calm, unhurried energy. Moving through the paperwork methodically rather than reacting with the alarm I half expected. “Take a breath,” she told me at one point, noticing my hands shaking slightly over the documents. “Whatever this turns out to be. We’ll figure out the right response together.”
She read through everything slowly, twice, before saying a single word. Making small notes in the margins of a legal pad.
“This happens more often than people think,” she told me. Spreading the documents across her desk. “Family members added during a refinance or a favor. Then never removed once the original reason expired.”
“Can we remove her?” I asked.
“It’s possible,” Priya said. “It requires her cooperation. Or a legal process if she refuses to cooperate voluntarily. Either way. It won’t be simple, and it won’t be quick.”
“What if she refuses?” I asked.
“Then it becomes a partition action,” Priya said. “Essentially, a lawsuit asking a court to force a resolution. Either buying out her share or selling the property entirely and dividing the proceeds.”
