Chapter 10 - The Notary
Elena Cruz agreed to speak only with lawyers present.
She was forty-one, precise, and visibly furious.
“I did not notarize that document.”
They sat in Martin’s conference room.
Elena placed her notary journal on the table.
“Every notarization I perform goes here.”
She opened to March.
There was no Rachel Bennett.
“My seal disappeared on March ninth. I noticed when I returned from Chicago on the twelfth.”
“What did you do?” Martin asked.
“I told Sloane.”
“Verbally?”
“First verbally. Then by email.”
She produced the email.
My notary stamp was missing from my locked drawer while I traveled. Please advise whether the firm wants an incident report.
Sloane’s response came seventeen minutes later.
Found it. Facilities moved several desk items during maintenance. No report necessary.
Elena looked at Rachel.
“Facilities never entered my office.”
“How do you know?”
“Badge logs.”
“Do you have them?”
“I requested them after I was fired.”
Rachel frowned.
“You were fired?”
“Three weeks later.”
“Why?”
“Performance concerns.”
Elena smiled without humor.
“I had worked there eleven years without a negative review.”
Martin asked, “Did you suspect Sloane used your seal?”
“I suspected someone did.”
“Why didn’t you report it to police?”
Elena looked ashamed.
“Because Sloane told me I could be personally liable for failing to secure it. I have two children. A mortgage. I was afraid.”
Rachel understood fear better now.
It did not excuse Daniel.
But she understood how people allowed powerful people to expand.
One frightened silence at a time.
Elena slid another document forward.
Badge records.
At 10:14 p.m. on March tenth, Sloane entered Elena’s office.
She remained thirteen minutes.
The forged trustee resignation was dated March tenth.
Martin leaned back.
“That’s substantial.”
“It gets better,” Elena said.
She opened her phone.
“I received this from Sloane two days after I came home.”
A text.
If anyone asks, the Bennett papers were handled before your trip.
Rachel stared.
“Did you answer?”
“Yes.”
Elena showed them.
I did not notarize any Bennett papers.
Sloane’s reply:
Then there is nothing for you to remember.
Maya whispered, “Wow.”
Rachel thought of Thanksgiving.
Sloane laughing in Rachel’s kitchen.
Sloane helping Lily decorate cookies.
Daniel’s hand once lingering at Sloane’s lower back when he thought nobody noticed.
Rachel had noticed.
She had explained it away.
Another mistake.
Martin asked Elena to sign a sworn declaration.
She agreed.
By afternoon, Sloane had retained separate criminal counsel.
That told Rachel almost as much as the evidence.
Daniel requested a private meeting again.
This time Martin approved, but only with conditions.
Public place.
No documents exchanged without review.
Rachel chose a hotel lobby.
Daniel arrived wearing the navy suit she had bought him for Charles’s funeral.
He looked exhausted.
“You’re staying with Maya?”
Rachel’s expression hardened.
“How do you know?”
“I guessed.”
“Try again.”
Daniel looked away.
“My mother has an investigator.”
“Your mother followed me to Jonah.”
“I told her to stop.”
Rachel laughed.
“And did she listen?”
He flinched at the word.
Listen.
“Where’s the blue folder?”
“Safe.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
“You emptied my office.”
“My mother’s people did.”
“You knew?”
“After.”
“Did you stop them?”
No answer.
Rachel leaned back.
“There’s a pattern here.”
“Rachel.”
“You keep arriving after the wrongdoing and explaining why you couldn’t prevent it.”
“I’m trying to fix things.”
“For yourself.”
“For Lily.”
“Don’t use her as camouflage.”
Daniel stared at his hands.
Then he said, “I never wanted my mother to hurt her.”
Rachel’s voice dropped.
“You told Margaret to scare her.”
Daniel looked up sharply.
“You heard the deleted file?”
“Not that one.”
His face changed.
Rachel had guessed.
Now she knew.
“There’s another recording.”
Daniel went still.
Rachel leaned forward.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“You just answered.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“I sent my mother a message.”
“What message?”
“Lily had told me she heard the recorder.”
“And?”
“I told my mother to handle it.”
Rachel’s stomach turned.
“What exact words?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
He looked at her.
“I said, ‘She heard it. Handle it before Rachel gets home.’”
Rachel’s eyes burned.
“You handed our daughter to her.”
“I meant talk to her.”
“You know your mother.”
“I didn’t think—”
“That is the excuse you use for everything.”
Daniel whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Rachel stood.
He reached for her.
She stepped away.
“Don’t.”
“I can testify against Margaret.”
“For immunity?”
“For a chance to keep my daughter.”
Rachel stared at him.
“You think Lily is a bargaining chip.”
“No.”
“You’re trying to exchange evidence for fatherhood.”
His face collapsed.
“You don’t understand what she did to me.”
“Margaret?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s voice shook.
“She controlled everything. My school. My friends. Dad. The company. When I was fifteen, she had me followed because she thought I was smoking.”
Rachel felt no sympathy.
Not yet.
“Then you knew exactly what she was capable of doing to a frightened child.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
That hit.
Rachel walked away.
Behind her, Daniel called, “Sloane has the original proxy.”
Rachel stopped.
He continued.
“And she has messages Margaret doesn’t know she kept.”
Rachel turned.
“What messages?”
Daniel hesitated.
“The ones where my mother tells her what to do.”
“Can Sloane prove North Harbor belongs to Margaret?”
“Not directly.”
“Then what can she prove?”
Daniel swallowed.
“That Margaret promised her five percent of whatever North Harbor made on Harbor Square.”
Rachel stared.
“And what did you promise Sloane?”
He looked away.
May you like
That was when Rachel knew the affair had not merely been personal betrayal.
It had been compensation.
