Chương 7
“That is one thing a power of attorney can be used for.”
“Would this have let him sell my condo?”
“Potentially, depending on the document and transaction.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Move money?”
“Potentially.”
“Borrow against assets?”
“Again, potentially. I am not telling you he intended to do any of that.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Claire frowned.
Alicia folded her hands.
“You’re asking me questions as though the document proves his plan. It doesn’t. It proves he asked you for broad authority.”
Claire leaned back.
Alicia tapped the letterhead.
“Who recommended Lennox & Shore?”
“Daniel.”
“Did anyone at the firm speak to you alone?”
“No.”
“Did anyone explain this document directly to you?”
“No.”
“Did you retain them?”
“I don’t think so.”
“That answer matters.”
Claire stared at the paper.
“There was a signature page in the wedding room.”
“Did you sign?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Not congratulations.
Not relief.
Just good.
Alicia asked for Evelyn’s documents.
Claire did not have them.
She called Evelyn for the first time.
The older woman answered on the fifth ring.
“Who is this?”
“Claire.”
“Oh.”
“That’s flattering.”
“I don’t save numbers until I know they’ll be used twice.”
Claire looked at Alicia.
Alicia’s mouth twitched.
Claire asked whether Evelyn would allow her attorney to share relevant records.
“I’ll ask her.”
“You can just give me the number.”
“I said I’ll ask.”
Control.
Claire recognized it because Daniel had trained her to notice when someone else exercised it.
Strangely, she respected Evelyn’s version.
“Fine.”
A few hours later, Alicia received permission.
The review took days.
Those days were worse than the wedding.
Drama had structure.
Waiting did not.
Claire stayed at Nora’s apartment because returning to the house she shared with Daniel felt impossible.
Daniel remained there.
They had bought nothing together, technically. The property belonged to Claire. She had purchased it four years before meeting him.
Daniel had moved in eleven months ago.
His clothes occupied half the closet.
His espresso machine weighed forty pounds and had its own filtration line.
His toothbrush was still in her bathroom.
Ownership became absurdly complicated once a person’s socks were in your drawers.
Alicia advised Claire not to make impulsive decisions about access, possessions, or accusations.
So Claire did something she hated.
She waited.
She worked remotely from Nora’s dining table.
She answered emails.
She returned wedding gifts.
Most websites had a button for returns.
There was no button for The Groom’s Mother Is Alive.
Claire wrote variations of the same message forty-three times.
Due to unexpected circumstances, the wedding did not take place. Thank you for your kindness and understanding.
She did not tell anyone why.
The absence of explanation created explanations of its own.
By Thursday, someone had posted that Daniel had cheated.
By Friday, the rumor had become Claire had discovered another family.
In a sense, that was true.
Daniel’s business associates began calling him.
Claire knew because he told her.
He sent a message at 6:14 a.m.
This is already affecting employees who had nothing to do with our personal situation.
She stared at the words.
Then typed:
Did you tell Lennox & Shore your mother was dead?
She deleted it.
Then typed it again.
She did not send it.
At ten that morning, Matthew Rusk’s attorney contacted Alicia.
Not Matthew.
His attorney.
That frightened Claire more than if Matthew had called crying.
Matthew had provided records to his firm’s internal counsel after the wedding and had been told not to contact Claire directly. Some of the documents Evelyn possessed had come from him before the ceremony after he became concerned about the similarity between Claire’s planned estate documents and an older Mercer matter.
He had not been the attorney who handled Evelyn’s property transfer.
He had, however, reviewed archived records while preparing Daniel’s new request.
According to Alicia, Matthew discovered something that did not fit.
Three years earlier, Daniel had asked Lennox & Shore to prepare a certification reflecting that he had succeeded Evelyn as trustee because of her death.
The firm’s file contained a scanned document purporting to confirm that death.
The record had been accepted.
Later, Daniel requested broad financial documents for Claire.
He specifically asked that the power-of-attorney language track language used in his mother’s old planning file.
Claire sat in silence after Alicia explained it.
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
“Why would he ask for the same language?”
“We don’t know.”
“What did Matthew think?”
“I’m not going to speculate about what another attorney thought.”
Claire rubbed her forehead.
“Everybody keeps not speculating.”
“That is one reason you called lawyers instead of bridesmaids.”
Claire looked out Alicia’s office window.
Traffic moved six floors below.
A delivery truck blocked half a lane and three drivers leaned on their horns as though the truck might become embarrassed and disappear.
“Did Matthew give the papers to Evelyn?”
“Some copies reached Evelyn’s attorney through counsel. I don’t know the full sequence yet.”
“Why come to the wedding at all?”
“Because Daniel asked him to witness documents.”
Claire closed her eyes.
He had walked into that room intending to watch her sign.
Matthew had known enough to be worried.
Not enough to stop it himself, apparently.
Claire felt anger toward him too.
It was easier than deciding what she felt about Daniel.
That evening Daniel called from a number she did not recognize.
She answered without thinking.
“Hi.”
His voice nearly undid her.
Not because it was persuasive.
Because it was familiar.
Claire sat on Nora’s balcony with a blanket around her shoulders. Cars hissed over wet pavement below.
“You changed numbers?”
“I borrowed Paul’s phone. You blocked me.”
“I blocked your work number.”
“You stopped answering the other one.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
He exhaled.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Daniel said, “I need to see you.”
“No.”
“Five minutes.”
“No.”
“Claire, I am not asking you to marry me tomorrow. I am asking you to hear me before you let strangers define what happened.”
May you like
“Your mother isn’t a stranger to you.”
Silence.
