Chapter 11 - The Notary
The notary was Gloria's younger brother, Paul Bennett.
Emily had met him once at Thanksgiving. He had called her "the quiet one" and spent dinner bragging about his new lake house.
Rachel moved fast.
By noon she had filed an emergency notice with the lender disputing the mortgage and preserving all closing records. By one, she had retained a forensic document examiner. By two, Emily's phone had forty-three missed calls from Daniel.
She answered the forty-fourth.
"Where are you?" he demanded.
"With my lawyer."
Silence.
"You hired a lawyer?"
"You forged my signature on an eight-million-dollar mortgage."
"I did not."
"Your company received the money."
"It was a bridge loan."
"Against my house."
"Our house."
"Not according to the deed."
Daniel lowered his voice. "Emily, come home. We can fix this privately."
"Why would I come home to a man who lied to police about me?"
"Because if you turn this into a public fight, you will destroy Henry's company. Thousands of people work for us."
There it was again.
"You should have thought about them before committing fraud."
"You don't know that it was fraud."
"Did I sign the mortgage?"
He said nothing.
Emily hung up.
Nora watched her carefully. "How are you still calm?"
"I'm not calm. I'm done negotiating with people who only understand my feelings as obstacles."
The mortgage had been signed remotely.
On screen, a woman with dark hair sat in a dim room, angled away from the camera. She held an ID card with Emily's photograph.
The audio was poor.
But the woman said, "I, Emily Mercer, authorize the transaction."
Emily leaned closer.
"That's not me."
Rachel paused the video.
Nora pointed at the woman's wrist.
Emily knew that bracelet.
Gloria wore it constantly.
Rachel zoomed in.
Emily felt nauseated.
Then the lender's file revealed the email address used to receive the signing link.
It was not Gloria's.
It belonged to Daniel.
And the recovery phone number attached to the account was still active.
May you like
Rachel called it.
A phone began ringing inside Emily's purse.
