Chương 7
“On the state filing, no.”
“Then why use my number?”
“It appears on the federal tax registration for the entity.”
“I didn’t sign anything.”
“That is the problem.”
My pulse accelerated.
“What has the company done?”
“So far we’ve identified the condo purchase, two brokerage accounts, and a credit application.”
“A credit application for what?”
“A business line.”
“How much?”
“Five hundred thousand.”
I closed my eyes.
“Tell me it wasn’t approved.”
“It was.”
“How much was used?”
“About three hundred and twenty thousand.”
“By whom?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Bradley?”
“Possibly.”
“Tiffany?”
“Possibly.”
“Lucas?”
“We have no evidence tying him to Harbor Meridian.”
I looked back at the children.
Connor was saying something that made Madison laugh.
The sight of them made fear settle into something colder.
“What am I exposed to?”
“Potentially tax issues, credit issues, and questions about identity misuse.”
“Potentially.”
“Yes.”
“That word is doing a lot of work today.”
“I know.”
“Does Bradley know the company uses my information?”
“We don’t know.”
“That sounds impossible.”
“It isn’t.”
“How could he buy a condo through a company and not know whose tax ID was used?”
“He may have relied on someone else to form the entity.”
“Tiffany?”
“Maybe.”
“His accountant?”
“Maybe.”
I exhaled sharply.
“You have a lot of maybes.”
“That’s because guesses are dangerous right now.”
I looked at the boarding screen.
Our flight still showed on time.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Board the plane.”
I was surprised.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“You’re telling me all of this and still telling me to leave the country.”
“The children’s relocation is lawful under the agreement.”
“What about me?”
“You are not under investigation.”
“Yet.”
“Sarah.”
“Yet?”
“No agency has contacted you.”
“That is not the same answer.”
“No.”
I appreciated that he did not try to comfort me with something false.
“What happens while I’m gone?”
“My office continues preserving records.”
“And the bank?”
“They are reviewing the education transfers.”
“The lender?”
“We obtain the original closing package.”
“Harbor Meridian?”
“We notify the appropriate parties only after we know exactly what your exposure is.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“Why does this feel like I’m running away?”
“Because you are leaving on the same day everything became visible.”
“That sounds like running away.”
“You planned this move before any of us knew the full scope.”
“I knew Bradley was hiding money.”
“Yes.”
“I knew he bought property with Tiffany.”
“Yes.”
“I did not know my name was attached to half of this.”
“No.”
A gate announcement began overhead.
Not ours.
A delayed flight to Chicago.
People groaned around me.
“Should I stay?”
The question escaped before I could stop it.
Harrison did not answer immediately.
“As your attorney, no.”
“And as someone who knew my father?”
His silence lasted longer.
“As someone who knew your father, I think he would tell you not to confuse standing in the middle of a disaster with fixing it.”
My eyes burned unexpectedly.
I looked toward the windows.
A plane was pushing back from a nearby gate.
“He’d also ask why I signed documents without reading them.”
“He probably would.”
“That sounds more like him.”
“Then he’d complain about airport coffee.”
“He hated airport coffee.”
“He hated all coffee he didn’t make himself.”
I smiled despite the tightness in my chest.
Then my phone vibrated.
Tiffany again.
This message contained a photograph.
I opened it.
A document filled the screen.
The image was crooked, taken quickly, but I could read the first lines.
Harbor Meridian LLC.
Authorized Representative: Sarah Mitchell.
Below it was a signature.
My name.
Not my handwriting.
My stomach dropped.
There was one line beneath the photograph.
Bradley told me you signed this.
I stared at the photograph until the letters stopped looking like words.
“Harrison.”
“I’m here.”
“I just got something from Tiffany.”
“What?”
“A document with my name on it.”
“What kind of document?”
“Harbor Meridian.”
His voice changed immediately.
“Send it to me.”
“Do not crop it.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Do not annotate it, forward it to anyone else, or reply to her.”
“Fine.”
I sent the image while he stayed on the line.
For several seconds, I heard only the low rustle of paper and the distant hum of his office.
Then he swore.
Harrison almost never swore.
“What?” I asked.
“The signature is not yours.”
“I know that.”
“I mean it is not even a competent imitation.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“It isn’t meant to be.”
I leaned against the chair harder.
“Can you tell where this came from?”
“Not from the image alone.”
“There’s a footer.”
“I see it.”
“What is it?”
“Looks like part of a lender certification package.”
“So someone submitted this to a lender.”
“Likely.”
“Using my name.”
“Yes.”
“Without asking me.”
“Yes.”
I looked toward Connor and Madison again.
Madison had arranged apple slices in a circle around her stuffed rabbit.
Connor had stopped eating.
He was watching me.
I forced my face into something neutral.
“How bad is this?” I asked.
“It depends on how many documents exist and what they were used for.”
“That sounds bad.”
“It is serious.”
“Serious enough that I shouldn’t leave?”
“No.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because leaving today doesn’t make the document more or less fraudulent.”
I winced at the word.
Fraudulent.
Until that moment, everything had felt personal.
Ugly, dishonest, selfish, but personal.
That word dragged the problem into a world with investigators, sworn statements, bank departments, and people who did not care that Bradley once knew how I took my coffee.
“Could he have signed my name?” I asked.
“Possibly.”
“Wouldn’t that be easy to prove?”
“Not necessarily.”
“You just said it was a bad imitation.”
“A bad imitation proves only that you probably didn’t sign it.”
“So who did?”
“We find out.”
I hated that answer because it was the only honest one.
Another message from Tiffany appeared.
Please.
I need you to understand something before he gets to you.
I showed Harrison.
May you like
“Still don’t answer?”
“Still don’t answer.”
