Chapter 3 - The People Who Signed for Me
We left the library through a side door and drove to Helen’s office in White Plains. She wanted the children somewhere secure, but I refused to let them out of my sight. Ava sat in the back with Milo, one hand resting on his shoulder whenever he shifted in his sleep.The stranger from the library did not follow us. That frightened me more than if he had.Helen’s office occupied the second floor of a converted train station. The waiting room smelled of lemon polish and old paper. She gave Ava a tablet, found Milo a stack of colored pencils, and led me into a conference room with frosted windows.“Tell me about Malcolm’s business,” she said.“Wren & Hale Construction. He started it with a partner named Hale, but Hale retired years ago.”“Did Malcolm ever mention Northstar Restoration?”“No.”“Did he ever ask you to sign documents without explaining them?”I thought of the kitchen table, the blue folders, the impatient tapping of his wedding ring against the wood.“Constantly.”Helen slid copies of the loan records across the table. “This signature appears on a guaranty for Northstar.”The signature looked like mine.It also looked wrong.The R had the wrong angle. My middle name had been shortened. I never shortened my middle name on legal documents because Celia had once warned me that inconsistent signatures created openings for fraud.“I didn’t sign this.”“I suspected that.”“Who witnessed it?”Helen turned the page. The witness was listed as a notary named Judith Kline. The address belonged to a mailbox store in New Jersey.“Malcolm said you were the one who handled the paperwork,” she said.“He told everyone I hated numbers.”“Did you?”“I hated being treated as if I was stupid.”The door opened. Claire rushed in wearing yesterday’s clothes, her face drawn from the overnight flight. She crossed the room and hugged me so hard my shoulder hurt.“Mom, I’m sorry,” she whispered.“For what?”“For not answering when you called.”I held her. “You were in a hospital.”She pulled back. “Dad called me too. He said you were having some kind of breakdown.”“I’m beginning to think he uses that phrase when a woman refuses to obey him.”Claire’s eyes filled. “He said you were going to move to Manhattan and abandon everyone.”“He handed me divorce papers on the porch.”“Serena did.”“He stood behind the door.”Claire looked toward the conference table. “That sounds like him.”The admission hurt, but not because I disagreed.Daniel arrived an hour later. He had shaved but not changed his work clothes. He stopped when he saw the documents spread across the table.“What is all this?”“Evidence,” Helen said.Daniel gave her a suspicious look. “Who are you?”“The attorney handling your grandmother’s estate.”“My grandmother?”“Celia Wren.”He glanced at me. “You never told us she was leaving you that much.”“I didn’t know until after the funeral.”“Dad knew.”Claire looked at him. “How do you know?”“He called me from the house. He said the inheritance was the reason Mom had been distant.”“I was caring for Celia,” I said. “You both knew that.”Daniel sat heavily. “He also asked me to sign something.”Helen became very still. “What did you sign?”“A statement saying Mom had agreed to let Dad use the house as collateral.”“When?”“Last month.”“Did you read it?”His jaw tightened. “It was three pages. I was at the airport. Dad said it was temporary.”Helen held out her hand. Daniel took a folded copy from his jacket.The statement named Daniel as a witness to my consent. It also said I had been “aware of and supportive” of the Northstar contract.“I didn’t know what it was,” Daniel said.“You signed it anyway.”He flinched. “I know.”Claire reached for his hand. He pulled away.Helen scanned the document. “This was prepared before the date shown on the first page.”“How can you tell?”“The notary stamp belongs to an office that closed six months ago.”My anger shifted. Malcolm had not merely lied to me. He had recruited our children as props in a fraud they did not understand.That evening, Serena called.I almost ignored her. Helen answered instead and put the phone on speaker.“I need to speak to Ruth,” Serena said.“You’re speaking to her attorney.”“I don’t care.”Her voice was thinner than it had been on the porch.“What do you want?” I asked.“To tell you I didn’t know about the loan.”“You knew enough to serve the papers.”“I knew Malcolm wanted a divorce. I didn’t know he had been forging signatures.”“Why should I believe you?”“Because he’s trying to destroy me too.”There was a pause.“He promised you the house,” I said.“He promised me everything.”“And now?”“Now he says I was only an employee who misunderstood the relationship.”Claire made a bitter sound.Serena continued. “I have copies of his messages. He told me Celia was dying. He told me you would be too distracted to protect the estate. He said once the divorce was filed, you would settle quickly because you’d be ashamed.”My fingers curled against the table.“Where are the copies?” Helen asked.“In my apartment.”“Why not give them to the police?”“Because one message is from me.”I looked at Helen.“I helped backdate two invoices,” Serena said. “I thought it was tax work. I was wrong.”“What do you want in return?” I asked.“A chance to tell the truth before he makes me the only criminal.”Helen wrote down an address. “Meet us tomorrow morning. Bring everything.”Serena agreed, then hung up.Daniel stared at the phone. “Is she telling the truth?”“We’ll find out.”That night, I returned to the library alone. I needed quiet, and Mrs. Patel had given me a key. The building smelled of dust and rain. I opened the blue ledger beneath the reading-room lamp and found a page I had missed.It contained three names: Malcolm Hale, Peter Wren, and Ruth Wren.Beside my name, Celia had written a single sentence.If Malcolm discovers why I chose Ruth, he will use the family secret before she is ready.From outside, a car door slammed.I looked through the dark window.A man stood across the street, holding a photograph of my mother.
