Chapter 3 - THE DEAD WOMAN'S SIGNATUREAunt Clara had been dead for six years.
Yet someone had apparently signed documents in her name.
Natalie contacted the bank.
Then the trustee's office.
Then the state records department.
Within forty-eight hours, investigators found something strange.
A notarized document claimed Aunt Clara had personally approved Grant's transfer.
The notary was real.
The signature was not.
And the person who had appeared before the notary had used Clara's identification.
Someone had stolen it.
“Who?” I asked.
Natalie slid a photograph across the table.
I recognized the man immediately.
Ryan.
Grant's younger brother.
I stared.
“No.”
“He was the person who submitted the documents.”
“Why would Ryan help Grant?”
“Because Ryan received money.”
“How much?”
“$190,000.”
I closed my eyes.
The betrayal seemed endless.
Ryan had eaten dinner at my table.
Held my children.
Called me sister.
All while helping Grant steal from me.
Then another name appeared.
Eleanor.
Grant's mother.
Payments had been made to her.
Tessa.
Ryan.
Even a private investigator.
They had built a network around me.
Not to divorce me.
To financially destroy me.
The affair was simply the visible part.
The real plan had been happening underneath.
Grant had expected me to leave the marriage with nothing.
But there was one thing he hadn't understood.
I had spent six years working in financial risk analysis before I became a stay-at-home mother.
I knew how people hid money.
I knew how shell companies worked.
I knew how transactions were disguised.
And I knew exactly what a pattern looked like.
That night, I opened the files Natalie had given me.
I noticed something.
A recurring number.
1847.
It appeared in multiple transactions.
$18,470.
$184,700.
$1,847,000.
The number wasn't random.
I remembered it.
My grandmother's house number.
I told Natalie.
She immediately started searching.
Three hours later, she called.
“We found it.”
“What?”
“The original trust account.”
My heart raced.
“How much?”
Silence.
“Penelope…”
“What?”
“There is more than $9 million in it.”
I sat down.
Grant hadn't stolen the money.
He had been trying to gain access to it.
Because my grandmother's trust had grown significantly over the years.
And the beneficiary restrictions meant that once I gave birth to my third child, another provision would activate.
“What provision?”
Natalie smiled.
“Your grandmother anticipated exactly this kind of situation.”
She handed me the original document.
I read the clause.
Then I laughed.
For the first time in months, I laughed.
May you like
Grant had spent years trying to control me.
He had no idea my grandmother had already protected me.
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