Chapter 6 - HIS SIGNATURE|
I read Nathan's message until the words stopped looking like words.
Alexander had approved the transfer.
I wanted to believe there was an explanation. Maybe he hadn't known what the documents contained. Maybe someone had placed the papers in front of him and he had signed without reading them.
But those excuses were familiar.
For five years, I had made excuses for him.
Evelyn arrived at my apartment the next morning with a copy of the filing.
“It's his signature,” she said. “The bank has confirmed that the authorization came from his office.”
“Can he transfer my mother's trust without me?”
“No. Not legally. Your approval is required.”
“Then why forge my signature?”
“To make it look as though you agreed.”
I stared at the document.
The transfer would move the property into a company called Northbridge Development. The company had been registered only four months earlier.
“Who owns Northbridge?”
Evelyn turned a page.
“That's the problem. The ownership is concealed behind two holding companies.”
I thought of Sophia's redevelopment proposal.
“She's connected to it.”
“Almost certainly.”
My phone rang. Alexander.
I answered before I could change my mind.
“Did you authorize a transfer of my mother's trust?”
There was a pause.
“What are you talking about?”
“Northbridge Development. The property trust. My forged signature.”
His voice hardened.
“Where did you get that information?”
“Answer the question.”
“I signed a preliminary authorization for a property review. It wasn't a transfer.”
“You signed a document with my name on it.”
“I didn't know your signature was there.”
“You didn't read it?”
“Claire, I have people handling hundreds of documents every week.”
“And one of those documents was designed to steal something that belonged to my mother.”
He was silent.
I could hear traffic in the background.
“Who told you?” he asked.
“That isn't the point.”
“It's very much the point.”
“No. The point is that someone used your office to forge my name, and you want to know who told me instead of asking how it happened.”
“Let me handle this.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was again.
The same command. The same assumption that I should step aside while he decided what happened to my life.
“You don't handle anything for me anymore.”
“Claire, listen—”
“No. You listen. I am not signing anything. I am not meeting Sophia. And I am not returning to your house.”
“I never asked you to return.”
“You were about to.”
He exhaled sharply.
“I want to see my child.”
“You want to see the child you just discovered exists.”
“That's my child too.”
“Then act like a father before demanding the privileges of one.”
I ended the call.
That afternoon, Evelyn filed an emergency objection to the property transfer. She also requested an independent audit of the trust.
By evening, the request had triggered a response from Northbridge's attorneys.
They claimed the signature was genuine.
They attached a second document.
A statement, supposedly written by me, declaring that I had voluntarily agreed to relinquish my mother's controlling interest.
The signature was again forged.
But there was something else.
At the bottom of the statement was the name of a witness.
Nathan Cole.
I called him immediately.
He answered on the first ring.
“Claire?”
“Why is your name on this document?”
Silence.
Then he said, very quietly, “Because I was there when Alexander signed it.”
My throat tightened.
“You told me you wanted to help.”
“I do.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
Nathan took a breath.
“I saw Sophia hand Alexander the papers. I saw him sign. And I saw him tell his assistant to make sure your name was added.”
I couldn't speak.
“Claire, I don't think he knew the signature was forged.”
“That's supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
“Then why are you defending him?”
“Because the next document they plan to file has nothing to do with the property.”
“What does it concern?”
May you like
Nathan hesitated.
“Your marriage.”
