Chapter 6 - The Signature
Callum denied signing my name.
He denied it immediately.
That did not mean I believed him.
But it mattered.
“I changed the guarantee renewal,” he said.
“I requested trust information.”
“I added Deline as an information contact.”
“I hid things from you.”
His voice cracked.
“But I did not forge that.”
We were standing in our bedroom.
Renley was at school.
The house felt stripped of everything familiar.
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Deline?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your mother?”
His eyes snapped up.
That reaction answered before his mouth did.
“What?”
I stepped closer.
“Why did you react like that?”
“I didn’t.”
“You did.”
Callum sat on the edge of the bed.
“When I was nineteen, Mom signed Dad’s name on a refinancing form.”
I stared at him.
“She what?”
“It was complicated.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“Stop saying that.”
He looked ashamed.
“The cabin needed repairs.”
“Again with the cabin.”
“It was different then.”
“How?”
“Dad had already agreed verbally.”
“Did he sign?”
“No.”
“Then your mother forged his signature.”
Callum looked away.
I suddenly understood why Graham had kept copies.
The family did not trust itself.
They simply called that distrust loyalty.
I asked Samuel to send the disputed signature for examination.
At the same time, Cedar Hollow expanded its internal review.
Two days later, Deline’s business line remained restricted.
She sent Callum twenty-three messages.
He showed me all of them.
That was new.
YOU ARE LETTING HER DESTROY US.
MOM IS CRYING.
PETER MAY HAVE TO LAY PEOPLE OFF.
THIS IS YOUR FAULT.
CALL ME.
Callum did not answer.
Then the final message arrived.
DON’T FORGET WHAT I DID FOR YOU AFTER HARTFORD.
I saw Callum’s face change.
“What happened in Hartford?”
“Nothing.”
I stared at him.
He closed his eyes.
“Callum.”
“It was college.”
“What happened?”
He stood and walked to the window.
“When I was twenty, I got arrested.”
I had never known.
“For what?”
“Breaking into a professor’s office.”
I stared.
“I was drunk.”
He swallowed.
“I thought he had failed me unfairly.”
“That doesn’t sound like you.”
“It wasn’t.”
“What did Deline do?”
“She convinced one of the other students to say I hadn’t gone inside.”
My stomach tightened.
“Was that true?”
“No.”
“Then she lied for you.”
“Yes.”
“Did the charges disappear?”
“Eventually.”
“And she has owned you ever since.”
Callum did not answer.
I walked to the dresser.
“You were twenty.”
“I know.”
“You are thirty-eight now.”
“I know.”
“You have spent eighteen years repaying one lie by creating others.”
His eyes filled.
“I know.”
I turned away because I could not look at him.
That evening, Renley came downstairs carrying the wooden dolls.
The same two Deline had tried to take.
She placed them on the kitchen island.
“Can we give these to Poppy?”
I looked at her.
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
She touched one doll.
“I want to.”
My throat tightened.
“Then we can.”
She looked toward Callum.
“But Aunt Deline can’t make me.”
Callum crouched so they were eye level.
“No.”
Renley waited.
He swallowed.
“No one gets to make you give away something that belongs to you just because they’re louder.”
She studied him.
Then she asked quietly, “Would you say that if Aunt Deline was here?”
Callum’s eyes shifted toward me.
Before he could answer, the doorbell rang.
May you like
Deline was standing outside.
And she was holding a folder.
