Chapter 12 - THE SIGNER
The notary’s name was Dale Kessler.
Lydia’s cousin.
I remembered him from Alexander’s wedding.
He had complained about the price of the open bar while drinking from it.
Miriam contacted his attorney after the title company supplied the notarized document.
Two days later, we learned he had kept an appointment log.
It listed me.
It also listed an identification number.
Mine was different.
“That matters,” Miriam said.
She said it quietly, but everyone in the room leaned forward.
Kessler claimed a woman had appeared with identification and signed in front of him.
He said Lydia brought her.
He said he had not known the woman before.
Tessa stared at the table.
“What?” Alexander asked.
She shook her head.
“Tessa.”
“My aunt Ruth.
Mom’s older sister.”
I knew Ruth only from a Christmas photograph.
Silver hair.
Glasses.
A build similar to mine.
“She stayed with them that week,” Tessa said.
“Mom said she was helping Dad with paperwork.”
Miriam wrote down the name.
We did not go confront Ruth.
We gave the information to the investigator.
That evening, Alexander found an old photo on Bianca’s phone backup, available through their shared family account.
He stopped before opening more.
“Should I touch this?”
Miriam told him to preserve what he had seen and let the proper requests do the work.
The thumbnail was enough to make my stomach turn.
Ruth stood in Bianca’s dining room wearing a blue cardigan.
My blue cardigan.
The one I thought I had left there after Thanksgiving.
Alexander sat beside me.
“I brought that to Bianca in February.
She said she’d drop it off.”
I could not speak.
There was something especially cruel about that detail.
A sweater I had left in a warm house.
An ordinary forgotten thing.
Turned into a costume for stealing my life.
The investigator called the next morning.
Ruth had agreed to an interview.
By late afternoon, Miriam had news she could share.
Ruth admitted appearing at the appointment.
She claimed Lydia told her the papers were a harmless formality and that I had already approved everything.
“Did she know she was signing my name?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Alexander put his hand over mine.
Then Miriam added, “There’s another document in the title file.”
She laid it on the desk.
An authorization to send the remaining sale proceeds to Briar Administrative Services.
May you like
Bianca’s company.
And this time, the signature beneath it was Lydia’s.
