The Name Behind the Signature
Chapter 04 - The Name Behind the Signature
Anna called her attorney, Rachel Kim.
David protested.
Anna ignored him.
Rachel arrived forty minutes later.
By then, Caroline had stopped defending David.
She sat at the kitchen table staring at every document he'd given her.
Rachel examined the forged deed.
"This was notarized."
Anna looked at the stamp.
The notary's name was Robert Ellis.
David's accountant.
Rachel looked at David.
"Did Mr. Ellis witness Anna sign this?"
David said nothing.
Rachel repeated the question.
"No."
Anna felt something cold spread through her.
"So you knew."
David finally exploded.
"I was going to fix everything!"
Anna stared at him.
"Fix what?"
"The company was failing."
"What company?"
"My father's."
Anna froze.
David's father, Thomas Mitchell, had owned a regional construction business.
After Thomas died, David inherited it.
Anna thought the business was successful.
David admitted the truth.
Mitchell Construction had been losing money for four years.
Contracts disappeared.
Costs rose.
Then David made worse investments trying to cover the losses.
By the previous year, he owed nearly three million dollars.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you'd look at me exactly like you're looking at me now."
Anna shook her head.
"No."
Her eyes filled.
"I would've looked at you like your wife."
David's face crumpled.
"Then."
She pointed at the forged deed.
"Before this."
Caroline stood.
"You used my money to cover your father's company?"
David looked at her.
"Partly."
"Partly?"
Caroline's voice rose.
"How much?"
David didn't answer.
Anna opened banking records Rachel had brought.
The answer was there.
One hundred and seventy thousand dollars of Caroline's investment had already been transferred to Mitchell Construction.
Caroline sat down.
She looked destroyed.
Anna should have hated her.
This was the woman sleeping with her husband.
The woman expecting Anna to disappear.
But watching her now, Anna saw someone who had also been manipulated.
Not innocent.
But deceived.
Caroline whispered:
"I sold my father's house for that money."
Anna closed her eyes.
Then Rachel pointed toward another transaction.
"This one is different."
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars had left Mitchell Construction three months earlier.
The recipient was not a creditor.
It was a private account.
Account holder:
Emily Mitchell.
Anna stared.
May you like
David's younger sister.
A woman who had not spoken to the family in seven years.
