Chapter 5 - The Signature
The next morning, I met Emily in a quiet room the hospital social worker arranged for us.
Grace stayed with Noah.
My attorney, Hannah Price, joined by video.
Emily looked exhausted.
“You don’t have to do everything today,” Hannah told her.
“I need to tell it while I still can.”
She explained that Victoria had been reducing her pay for weeks.
First the advance.
Then a broken lamp Emily said she had never touched.
Then groceries.
Then “extra household costs.”
“When I asked for a statement, she said I wasn’t smart enough to understand one.”
Yesterday, while Victoria was out, Emily had gone into the office to find her employment folder.
Inside was an agreement ending her job.
It claimed she had received forty thousand dollars, resigned voluntarily, and agreed not to make accusations against the family.
Her signature was at the bottom.
“I never signed it.”
“Did you take a photograph?” Hannah asked.
Emily nodded.
“On my phone. But Mrs. Cole found out I’d been in there.”
“How?”
“She came home while I was leaving the office.”
Emily’s fingers tightened around a paper cup.
“She took my phone. She made me unlock it.”
Victoria had deleted the photograph.
Then, an hour later, the hospital called.
The assault had followed.
“What did she say about the folder?” I asked.
Emily looked down.
“She said nobody would believe a woman who stole from her employer.”
Hannah’s expression sharpened.
“Has she accused you of stealing before?”
“No.”
“Did you ever receive forty thousand dollars?”
“No.”
“Did anyone witness you signing anything?”
“I didn’t sign it.”
“I understand. I needed the answer clearly.”
After the call, I returned home with Grace.
Victoria had been arrested that evening. I had stayed at the hospital through the night, answering questions and checking on the twins.
Now the house looked exactly as it had before.
Fresh flowers.
Polished floors.
A photograph of us smiling beside the nursery window.
I could barely look at it.
Following Hannah’s instructions, I photographed the folder where I found it and left everything in place for the investigators.
Emily’s name appeared across three documents.
The signatures looked convincing.
That made them worse.
Then I saw a second folder beneath hers.
It carried Sophie’s and Owen’s names.
Inside was a bank statement.
May you like
I read the balance twice.
Nearly half the money I had set aside for my children was gone.
