Chapter 11 - The Signature
Luca swore he had never signed the order.
The forensic team swore the signature token was real.
Both statements could be true.
“Victor cloned your credentials?” Lena asked.
Luca shook his head. “Not possible without my biometric key.”
Evelyn looked at him. “Unless he had access when you were unconscious.”
I saw Luca’s face change.
“What?” I said.
“Three years ago, I had emergency surgery.”
“For your appendix,” Evelyn said. “Victor sat with you at the hospital.”
Luca looked sick. “He brought documents.”
Lena tapped the table. “Then we prove misuse.”
Before we could, my phone rang.
The twins’ school.
“Ms. Carter,” the administrator said, “we need you to come immediately.”
My heart stopped.
“What happened?”
“A man attempted to pick up Micah and Mila using an emergency authorization with your signature.”
I couldn’t feel my hands.
“Where are they?”
“Safe. We did not release them.”
I was already moving.
At the school, the principal showed us security footage. A well-dressed man had entered the office carrying perfect copies of my identification and a notarized authorization.
He had known the twins’ birthdays.
Their pediatrician.
Their classroom names.
Even Micah’s peanut allergy.
Luca watched the footage beside me.
“This is not intimidation anymore,” he said.
“No.”
“This is extraction.”
The police circulated the man’s image.
Then a detective asked to speak with us privately.
“We ran facial recognition,” she said. “His name is Aaron Pike.”
Evelyn inhaled sharply.
“You know him?” I asked.
She nodded.
“He used to work for my father.”
The room tilted.
Luca stared at his wife.
“Doing what?”
May you like
Evelyn looked at me before answering.
“Problems that needed to disappear.”
