Chương 7
“We need to prove that.”
“My husband forged it.”
“You suspect he did.”
“He forged my mother’s signature.”
“You suspect he did that too.”
Emily leaned back. “You don’t believe me.”
“I believe you are frightened and angry. Neither one authenticates a document.”
The firmness reminded Emily of Eleanor, which made her dislike Priya again.
Priya reviewed the papers, took notes, and asked whether Emily and David had a prenuptial agreement. They did. She asked who controlled Mercer Design Holdings. Emily said she did. Priya pointed to an amendment naming David as chief operating officer.
“I never made him COO.”
“Your signature is here.”
“That is my signature.”
“Did you sign it?”
Emily tried to remember.
The amendment was dated during the week of her father’s funeral. She remembered sitting at the kitchen island while David placed colored tabs on a stack of documents. She had been wearing one of Thomas’s old sweaters. David brought her tea and told her the paperwork would keep vendors from calling while she grieved.
She might have signed it.
The uncertainty felt like guilt.
“I don’t know,” she said.
Priya wrote something down. “That answer is useful.”
“It makes me sound incompetent.”
“It makes you sound honest.”
“I’m not incompetent.”
“I did not say you were.”
“I ran a successful firm.”
“How successful?”
Emily hesitated.
The firm had produced beautiful work, appeared in magazines, and lost money in three of its last four years. Her father covered payroll twice. David called the payments investments. Her father called them gifts and refused shares.
“Successful enough,” she said.
Priya did not challenge her.
She explained that Emily needed to preserve devices, emails, financial records, and signing-service notifications. She should open a new bank account at an institution David did not use, change passwords from a clean device, freeze her credit, and avoid discussing allegations through text.
“Do I go back to the hotel?”
“That is not a legal question.”
“I’m asking you.”
Priya capped her pen. “Are you afraid he will hurt you?”
“No.”
“Are you afraid he will pressure you to sign something?”
Emily looked at the conference room door.
“Yes.”
“Then do not stay with him.”
“I don’t have anywhere else.”
“You have money?”
“I don’t know.”
Priya’s expression changed slightly. “How do you not know?”
“David handles our accounts.”
“Do you have access?”
“To some.”
“Check now.”
Emily opened the banking app. The password failed.
She tried again.
The account locked.
Priya slid a legal pad across the table. “Write down every institution you remember. Personal, business, investments, credit cards, insurance. Do not worry about account numbers.”
Emily began.
The list was shorter than she expected.
At six thirty, she called Frank.
He answered in a whisper.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I think David took out a loan in my company’s name.”
A door closed on his end. His voice returned at normal volume. “Your mother told us about the paper.”
“My mother called you?”
“No. David did. He said she fabricated it.”
“What do you think?”
Frank took too long.
“I think my son has been telling me things I wanted to believe.”
Emily stood outside Priya’s office. The bakery next door had closed. Someone inside was mopping beneath the display cases.
“What things?”
“That the villa was being transferred to you. That he was renovating it as part of the transfer. That the development company had investors. That the money we gave him was secured.”
“What money?”
Frank cleared his throat. “Your mother doesn’t know.”
“How much?”
“One hundred eighty thousand.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“What was it for?”
“A permit bond. He said the bank had delayed funds.”
“Did he repay you?”
“Some.”
“How much?”
“Five thousand.”
“Frank.”
“Do not use that tone.”
“What tone?”
“The one everyone uses when they think old people are idiots.”
Emily leaned against the stucco wall. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not. But I understand.”
A car passed, its tires whispering over damp pavement.
“Where is Carol?” Emily asked.
“At the condo. Complaining about dust.”
“Is there really dust?”
“There is enough to complain about.”
Despite herself, Emily smiled.
Frank sighed. “He says you need to sign an affidavit.”
“What affidavit?”
“That your mother authorized the renovations and intended to transfer the property.”
“Did he send it to you?”
“He showed it to Carol. She thinks signing will settle everything.”
“Do not sign anything.”
“I know.”
“Does she?”
Another pause.
“She wants her sideboard.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Frank said, “That sounds ridiculous.”
“It does.”
“She says it belonged to her grandmother.”
“It doesn’t. She bought it at an estate sale in Boca.”
“I know.”
For the first time that day, Emily laughed. It came out wrong, halfway between a cough and a sob.
Frank laughed too, once.
Then he said, “I found something.”
“What?”
“A copy of a letter addressed to an insurance carrier. David used my old business address. It lists him as authorized manager for the villa.”
“Did you sign anything?”
“No.”
“Why use your address?”
“I asked him. He said his office lease was changing.”
“Can you send it to me?”
“I can bring it.”
“Don’t tell David.”
Frank became quiet.
“That is a strange sentence to hear about your son,” he said.
“Yes.”
“I suppose it is a stranger one to say about your husband.”
Emily looked through the dark bakery window at her reflection.
“Yes.”
She did not return to the Royal Palm.
Priya arranged for a room at a small hotel under Emily’s own card after helping her regain access to one personal account. The balance was $8,412. Emily had believed there was more than two hundred thousand.
She called the bank’s fraud department from the hotel desk. Transfers had moved most of the money into Mercer Development Group over the previous year. Several carried her electronic approval.
She remembered approving two.
She did not remember approving fourteen.
At ten, David called from an unknown number.
She let it ring.
May you like
He called again.
On the third call, she answered.
