Chapter 4 - NO ONE GETS TO SIGN FOR ME
Daniel's attorney, Rebecca Grant, met him at the hospital cafeteria with two legal pads and the kind of calm he wished he could borrow.
“First, your children's safety. Second, protection from further contact. Third, the financial records,” she said. “We do this in that order.”
“She's taken everything.”
“We don't know that. We know she's tried.”
Rebecca petitioned for emergency temporary custody orders and restrictions on accessing joint property. She warned that a criminal arrest didn't instantly settle family court, and that disputed loans wouldn't disappear because Daniel said the signatures were forged.
“I'll prove it,” he said.
“Good. But let professionals collect the proof.”
A hospital social worker joined them to discuss safe housing, support for the children, and how to explain the arrest without making Emma a second parent. Daniel listened carefully. For the first time all night, a plan had steps that made sense.
Then Rebecca opened a copy of an authorization sent to Daniel's business bank.
It granted Amanda broad control of the company if Daniel became medically incapacitated. The signature was dated during a conference he had attended in Seattle. A notary seal appeared beneath it.
“I was never with that notary,” he said.
Rebecca circled the notary's name. “She died three years before this was signed.”
They exchanged a stunned glance. The forgery was crude in one detail and professional in every other.
Rebecca's phone rang. She listened without speaking, then ended the call.
“That was your controller,” she said. “Someone submitted this authorization to the bank at 8:12 last night. They tried to move the business reserve to a new account.”
“How much?”
“Four hundred and sixty thousand dollars.”
Daniel's face drained. “That's next week's payroll.”
Rebecca slid the paper toward him. “And the receiving account isn't in Amanda's name.”
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It belonged to Cody Ellis.
