Chapter 3 - The Message With My Signature
The email had no greeting. There was an attached document titled TEMPORARY FAMILY CARE AGREEMENT. At the bottom of the last page was a signature that looked exactly like mine.
I had never seen the document.
It said June could be placed in a residential assessment program for ninety days if a licensed evaluator found an immediate need. It listed Celia as an emergency decision-maker. Another page contained claims that I was exhausted, emotionally unstable, and prone to angry outbursts in front of my daughter.
"I didn't sign this," I told Rebecca.
She scrolled slowly. "Then somebody wants it to look as if you did. And they're using your trust records to sound legitimate."
June's mother had left her a trust funded by shares in the family printing business and a house her grandparents had bought before she was born. The trust was worth several million dollars, but not one penny belonged to Celia. Rebecca and an independent trustee, Vera Finch, had to approve major distributions. I had always believed that made June safe.
Rebecca pointed at the final page. "This is not a court order. Nobody can take June because they typed something into a template. But it's evidence of what they were planning."
I sent the email to Rebecca and our family lawyer, then turned my phone face down. June was coloring on a hotel notepad, trying to make a blue bird without lifting the pencil.
"What happens to Celia?" she asked.
"I don't know yet. But you won't be left alone with her."
The off-duty officer knocked. He said two women were demanding their belongings from the suite and one of them had tried to erase a video while arguing with staff. A photographer had heard the fight and filmed part of the aftermath from the hallway.
Rebecca stood. "Tell them not to delete anything."
May you like
Then her phone rang. She listened without moving. Her eyebrows drew together.
"Grant," she said when the call ended, "the venue's event contract has an unusual addendum. Celia requested a private medical transport vehicle at nine tomorrow morning."
