Chapter 10 - The Signature That Wasn’t Hers
Detective Aaron Cole from the Financial Crimes Unit asked everyone to remain where they were.
He carried copies of three documents.
Each appeared to bear Skylar’s signature.
Skylar examined the first one.
“That isn’t mine.”
Derek laughed too quickly.
“You sign things without reading them all the time.”
Skylar looked at him.
“That’s what you counted on.”
The detective placed the documents on the table.
One authorized Derek to withdraw money from an inheritance account.
Another guaranteed a business loan.
The third transferred investment authority to Sable Coast Holdings.
All three had been notarized by the same person.
Suzanne.
Skylar’s stomach dropped.
“You notarized these?”
Suzanne shook her head.
“I only witnessed what Derek brought me.”
“A notary has to witness the signer,” Detective Cole said.
“I trusted him.”
Derek stared at her.
“Don’t say another word.”
Suzanne’s panic sharpened.
“You told me she signed them at home.”
“And you believed me.”
“You said she was sick!”
Skylar stood completely still.
Derek had told clients she was unstable.
He had told bankers she was too ill to attend meetings.
He had told Suzanne she was too weak to understand her own estate.
Every lie served the same purpose.
To make her absence seem normal.
Maya retrieved one final record.
“Skylar was in Boston on the date two of these documents were supposedly signed in Miami.”
The detective nodded.
“We confirmed the flight and hotel records.”
Derek’s mouth tightened.
Suzanne looked at the door, calculating whether she could leave.
Lieutenant Hayes blocked the path without touching her.
Detective Cole continued.
“We also recovered a draft message instructing Ms. Lane to backdate a notarization.”
Suzanne went pale.
She looked at Derek.
“You said you deleted that.”
Skylar almost could not breathe.
Derek’s control finally broke.
He grabbed the forged documents and tore them in half.
Detective Cole watched him do it.
“Those were copies.”
Derek stared at the pieces in his hands.
For the first time, everyone in the room saw him as he truly was.
Not powerful.
Not brilliant.
May you like
Just trapped.
👉 Derek had destroyed a copy in front of three officers—but the original evidence was already somewhere he could never reach.
