Chapter 7 - A Signature Borrowed in Silence
The pen was part of a digital document system I used at the printing company. Celia had persuaded me to test it for the wedding vendors, saying it would save time. My assistant had connected it to a shared tablet in the kitchen.
Rebecca checked the account access log. There were signing events while I was at work, including one linked to the fake family care agreement. The device had been left unlocked in our house. No one had needed to steal my password in a dramatic midnight break-in. They had used my ordinary trust in the person I planned to marry.
"You can't just decide a signature is a forgery because it came from your account," Rebecca warned. "We preserve the logs and let the experts compare them."
She was right. I wanted answers, not a mistake Celia could turn against me.
At the company that afternoon, I requested access to my office's security records. Our operations manager, Peter, looked uncomfortable. "Celia came by several times. She said she was organizing a surprise for the wedding. I thought you knew."
"Did she go into my office?"
"Once with a man. He had a visitor badge. I figured he was a vendor."
The sign-in book listed the man's name as Leonard Price, legal consultant. Rebecca recognized it immediately.
"Price used to prepare placements and guardianship petitions for Wren Harbor," she said. "His license was suspended pending a disciplinary matter."
My stomach tightened.
We reviewed a security still. Price carried a flat document case. Celia was smiling as she followed him through the corridor.
Peter enlarged the frame. On the folder was a sticker from a bank I'd never used.
May you like
Rebecca read the account number's first four digits, then looked at me.
"That's not a wedding vendor," she said. "It's the bank that holds June's trust."
