Chapter 15 - The Signature
Madeline spent the night at Halcyon's headquarters with Daniel, three lawyers, and enough coffee to make her hands shake.
At 2:30 a.m., they found the original transfer document in the company's digital archive.
The metadata showed it had been uploaded from Madeline's home computer.
"That proves nothing," Daniel said. "Preston had access."
But the notary video was worse.
Madeline appeared on camera.
She sat at her own dining table.
She answered questions.
She signed the pages.
Madeline watched herself and felt sick.
Her eyes were glassy. Her speech was slow.
She remembered none of it.
"I was drugged," she said.
Her attorney nodded. "Then we attack capacity and fraud. But stopping the vote by nine a.m. is another problem."
Poppy was asleep in Daniel's office with her rabbit tucked under her chin.
Madeline sat beside her and brushed hair from her face.
Poppy woke halfway.
"Mommy?"
"I'm here."
"Daddy made you sign papers when you were sleepy."
Madeline froze.
"You saw that?"
Poppy nodded. "Grandma said I had to stay upstairs. But Bunny fell down the stairs."
Her rabbit.
Madeline looked at it.
Months earlier Daniel had given Poppy a tiny child-safe camera that clipped inside the rabbit's bow for a family scavenger game. Everyone had forgotten about it.
Everyone except Poppy.
"Sweetheart, did Bunny have his camera that day?"
Poppy rubbed her eyes. "Maybe."
Daniel tore through the rabbit's bow.
The camera was still there.
Its memory card contained dozens of useless clips: carpets, shoes, cartoons, the underside of tables.
Then they found one recorded six weeks earlier.
The camera lay sideways on the stairs.
In the distance, Madeline sat drugged at the dining table.
Preston stood behind her.
Evelyn spoke from off camera.
"Keep her awake until the notary leaves."
May you like
Then Preston said seven words that could destroy everything he'd built.
"After the sale, she can remember whatever she wants."
