Chapter 9 - Two Versions of Aaron Pike
Aaron denied signing the affidavit.
Margaret’s lawyers insisted he had.
By Wednesday, both versions existed in court filings.
One Aaron Pike claimed Margaret’s stock-transfer document was forged.
Another sworn statement claimed Daniel ordered it fabricated to make Margaret look guilty.
The judge demanded the original affidavit and scheduled an expedited hearing.
“Someone forged my signature again,” Aaron said.
Daniel exploded.
“Or you’re lying again!”
They were in the corporate conference room.
Emily watched Aaron stand.
“I came to your house because I was done lying.”
“You hid fraud for years.”
“Yes.”
“You took money.”
“I took severance.”
“You helped my mother.”
“I helped myself. There’s a difference.”
Daniel shoved a chair backward.
Emily flinched.
The movement was small.
Daniel noticed.
His anger vanished instantly.
He stepped away.
That reflex—Emily fearing him—hurt more than any accusation.
Charles examined the affidavit.
“It was notarized remotely.”
“By whom?” Emily asked.
“Janet Cole.”
The same expired notary listed on the lake-house deed.
Except Janet Cole should not have been notarizing anything.
They found her in Wisconsin.
She was seventy-three and had retired.
Charles called.
Janet sounded confused.
“I haven’t notarized a document in almost three years.”
“Do you know Margaret Mercer?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She used to be my sister-in-law.”
Emily stared at Daniel.
Margaret had never mentioned Janet.
Janet’s late brother had briefly been married to Margaret’s younger sister decades earlier.
“Did you notarize Robert Mercer’s lake-house deed?”
“No.”
“Did you notarize an affidavit for Aaron Pike?”
“No.”
Charles asked whether her old seal had been lost.
Janet’s voice changed.
“It was stolen.”
“When?”
“About two years ago.”
“Did you report it?”
“Yes.”
The police report existed.
Suddenly Margaret’s documents became far more dangerous to her.
Daniel wanted to confront her.
Charles forbade it.
“We build evidence. We do not perform television justice.”
Margaret, however, had no such restraint.
That evening she appeared on the local business news.
She spoke calmly about “protecting Robert’s legacy” from a son under “destructive personal influence.”
She never named Emily.
She didn’t need to.
Online comments did it for her.
Gold digger.
Pregnancy trap.
Manipulative wife.
Emily closed her phone.
Daniel looked sick.
“I’ll release the kitchen video.”
“No.”
“People need to see what she did.”
Rebecca agreed with Emily.
“Do not litigate a family and corporate dispute through social media.”
Margaret’s strategy depended on emotional reactions.
Emily refused to give her one.
For two days, she remained silent.
Then a reporter published another story.
It claimed Emily had secretly accessed confidential Mercer Residential documents using Daniel’s credentials.
This time there was evidence.
Security logs.
Emily stared at them.
The access occurred at 1:31 a.m. six nights earlier.
From Daniel’s home office.
Her user profile had been active.
Emily remembered that night.
She had gone into the office for the insurance folder.
Margaret had seen the light.
But Emily had not logged into anything.
Daniel looked at the logs.
“Someone used your profile.”
“How?”
“Our home computers share a network.”
“Who knows my password?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Mom might.”
Emily stared.
“Why?”
“You use the same PIN on the kitchen tablet.”
Emily felt stupid.
A tiny mistake.
A four-digit code.
Margaret had watched her enter it hundreds of times.
Rebecca called.
“This is serious.”
“I didn’t access anything.”
“I believe you. But perception matters.”
The leaked logs made Emily appear connected to the anonymous corporate documents she had received.
Margaret was constructing a narrative:
Emily illegally obtained records.
Emily manipulated Daniel.
Daniel fabricated evidence against his mother.
Everything connected.
Power shifted again.
The company’s board placed Daniel on temporary administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
He came home carrying a cardboard box.
Emily met him in the foyer.
“They suspended you?”
“Paid leave.”
His voice was dead.
Margaret had won the first corporate battle.
Daniel looked toward the staircase.
“My father built that company.”
Emily said nothing.
“I lost it.”
“Temporarily.”
“Because of her.”
Emily looked at him.
“Not only because of her.”
He understood.
His signature.
His silence.
His choices.
Daniel nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
Then the doorbell rang.
A process server stood outside.
The papers were for Emily.
Margaret had filed a petition seeking an emergency order of protection.
The allegations included harassment, threats, electronic intrusion, and physical aggression.
Attached was the edited kitchen video.
And one more item.
A voice recording.
Emily pressed play.
Her own voice said:
“I swear I’ll destroy you, Margaret.”
Emily stared in horror.
She had never said those words.
But the voice was hers.
Someone had created the threat from recordings of her speech.
Rebecca listened once.
Then again.
“This has been manipulated.”
“Can we prove it?”
“Probably.”
“Before a judge hears it?”
Rebecca looked at the hearing notice.
The emergency hearing was scheduled for the next morning.
May you like
Her expression darkened.
“We have less than eighteen hours.”
