Chapter 3 - THE SIGNATURE THAT DIDN’T BELONG TO HIM
Richard placed the boarding-school applications on the dining table.
“My signature is forged.”
Victoria lifted her chin.
“You sign dozens of things.”
Emily almost smiled.
Not with humor.
With recognition.
That was how people like Victoria defended a forgery.
Not by denying it.
By saying the victim probably forgot.
Richard looked at the applications again.
Then at the legal counsel who had been called to the house.
“Check the submission source.”
The lawyer did.
Three minutes later, his face changed.
“The files were uploaded from an account connected to Cross Family Advisory.”
Victoria went pale.
That was the fourth crack.
Richard stared at her.
“Your company.”
“It was administrative support.”
“For sending my daughters away?”
Silence.
The lawyer continued.
“There’s more.”
No one wanted more.
That was why everyone listened.
A fourth document had been submitted with the school forms.
A parental concern statement.
It described the girls as emotionally unstable after their mother’s death.
Difficult.
Dependent.
Unable to adjust to a future stepmother.
Emily’s hands tightened.
The children had done nothing wrong.
But someone had already written them as problems.
Regina whispered,
“Are we bad?”
Richard turned immediately.
“No.”
His voice broke.
“No, sweetheart.”
Emily knelt in front of the three girls.
“You are not bad.”
She looked toward Victoria.
“You were inconvenient.”
The room went still.
Richard looked at the concern statement.
His forged signature was at the bottom.
Then he noticed another signature.
Emily Parker.
He turned toward her.
Emily went pale.
“I never signed that.”
The lawyer examined it.
“Electronic certification.”
Emily looked at Victoria.
Victoria said nothing.
Too late.
The plan was clear.
Use Emily as the witness.
Make it appear the nanny agreed the children were unstable.
Then remove Emily before she could object.
Richard whispered,
“You used her name too.”
Emily looked at him.
“No.”
Her voice hardened.
“She used everyone’s name.”
Then the lawyer found the source file.
The false statement had been drafted six weeks earlier.
Before Emily was fired.
Before the children begged her not to leave.
Before Victoria claimed there had been problems.
The ending had been written first.
They only needed the scene to match.
Then the lawyer stopped scrolling.
His face changed.
“There is a fifth document.”
Richard looked up.
“What?”
The lawyer read the title.
Temporary Guardianship Transition Following Marriage.
The room froze.
Richard’s face emptied.
The proposed guardian was not him.
May you like
It was Victoria Cross.
And the document became active if Richard was declared emotionally compromised by grief.
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