Chapter 2 - The Signature
Claire locked the bathroom door.
Lily sat on the counter wrapped in a towel while Claire unfolded the document.
The paper was a transfer authorization for three hundred thousand dollars.
The sender was the Whitmore Family Trust.
The recipient was a company Claire had never heard of.
Northstar Consulting LLC.
The authorization date was tomorrow.
Claire stared at it.
Someone had prepared the transfer in advance.
Her forged signature had already been placed at the bottom.
Only one final digital confirmation was missing.
“Where did you get this, sweetheart?”
Lily rubbed her eyes.
“Daddy gave Grandma envelopes.”
“He told her to put them upstairs.”
“Then one fell down.”
“I thought it was for my birthday.”
Claire swallowed hard.
“Did Grandma see you take it?”
Lily nodded.
“She said I was stealing.”
“Then she put food on me.”
Claire closed her eyes.
The humiliation downstairs had not started because Lily spilled something.
Margaret had attacked a four-year-old because the child accidentally picked up evidence.
A fist struck the bathroom door.
“Claire.”
Ethan.
“Open the door.”
Claire slid the document into the back of Lily’s dresser.
“Give me five minutes.”
“No.”
Another hit.
“Open it now.”
Lily flinched.
Claire’s expression hardened.
She opened the door only enough to step through and immediately closed it behind her.
Ethan stood in the hallway.
His shirt was covered with cake.
Margaret waited near the staircase.
“What did Lily give you?”
Ethan asked.
Claire studied his face.
There was no concern for Lily.
No question about why she had been crying.
Only fear.
“Nothing.”
“You’re lying.”
Claire folded her arms.
“You watched your mother dump dinner over our daughter.”
Ethan lowered his voice.
“My mother lost her temper.”
“You threw an entire cake at me.”
“Are you really comparing those things?”
Margaret interrupted.
“That child was snooping where she didn’t belong.”
Claire looked toward her.
“She’s four.”
“She knew exactly what she was doing.”
Those words told Claire everything.
Margaret knew about the document.
Claire stepped closer.
“What was in the envelope?”
Margaret’s confidence disappeared for half a second.
Ethan immediately answered for her.
“Business paperwork.”
“What business?”
“Mine.”
“Then why did it have my name on it?”
Silence.
Margaret looked at Ethan.
Ethan looked at Claire.
That single pause was more convincing than any confession.
Claire walked back into Lily’s room and closed the door.
She dialed Jonathan.
“I found a transfer document.”
Jonathan asked her to photograph every page.
Claire sent the images.
Thirty seconds later, he called back.
His voice sounded different now.
“Claire, Northstar Consulting is not a consulting company.”
“What is it?”
“It is controlled by Margaret Whitmore.”
Claire stared at the wall.
Jonathan continued.
“And there is another problem.”
“Northstar is scheduled to purchase your house in forty-eight hours.”
Claire’s blood ran cold.
May you like
“My house is not for sale.”
“According to the paperwork I’m looking at, it already is.”
