Chapter 6 - The Fake Signature
I wanted to call Claire and demand the truth.
Evelyn stopped me.
"The moment they know you survived, they start destroying evidence."
"They may already be doing that."
"Then let them believe their plan worked long enough to show us the rest of it."
The sheriff agreed to keep my survival confidential while investigators verified the helicopter evidence.
Richard spent the next day performing grief.
He gave interviews. He thanked search teams. He posted an old wedding photo with a caption about miracles.
Meanwhile, someone using his credentials attempted to enter my private family trust account.
Denied.
Then again.
Denied.
A third attempt triggered an automatic legal alert.
Marcus smiled without humor.
"He is rattled."
That night, we obtained a copy of the proxy document.
My signature was excellent.
Too excellent.
It matched the signature on a contract I had signed fourteen months earlier, down to a tiny hesitation in the second loop of the H.
"Copied," Evelyn said.
"From what?"
Marcus found the source within an hour.
The contract had been stored in Claire's office.
I stared at her name until the letters blurred.
Then my private nurse knocked and handed me a small package delivered by courier.
No return address.
Inside was a cheap prepaid phone.
It rang the moment I turned it on.
I answered without speaking.
A woman whispered, "Don't hang up."
Claire.
My chest tightened.
"You have thirty seconds."
She started crying.
"Amelia, I didn't know he was going to push you."
I closed my eyes.
Not I don't know what you're talking about.
Not I never helped him.
She had chosen the worst possible sentence.
"What did you know, Claire?"
May you like
Her breathing stopped.
Then someone knocked hard on her door.
