Chapter 10 - The Signature Joanna Never Made
The Phoenix officers requested a financial-crimes detective.
Within an hour, the kitchen had become an evidence scene.
The lighter was bagged.
The legal documents were photographed.
Joanna’s recording was copied.
Linda was told not to touch her phone.
She sat at the far end of the island, watching everyone with cold contempt.
Beth had stopped defending her.
Robert looked twenty years older.
Detective Maria Chen arrived with a laptop and examined the transfer alert.
The request had been submitted at 9:14 that morning.
It included an electronic signature bearing Joanna’s full name.
Joanna had been driving to Phoenix at that time.
“I never authorized this.”
Detective Chen nodded.
“The request came from an IP address registered to this home.”
Every eye turned toward Linda.
Linda crossed her arms.
“Joanna has used our internet before.”
“The login occurred today.”
“She could have scheduled it.”
Joanna stared at her mother.
Linda lied effortlessly.
Not angrily.
Not desperately.
As though truth were simply another thing she could rearrange.
Detective Chen examined the printed bank statements.
“These appear to have been downloaded two days ago.”
Robert admitted entering Joanna’s account from her laptop.
He insisted he only viewed the balance.
Linda had later used the saved session from a browser synced to Robert’s home computer.
The detective asked who knew Joanna’s electronic-signature PIN.
No one answered.
Then Beth began crying.
“Mom made me watch Joanna sign a birthday card last month.”
Joanna looked at her.
“What?”
“She said she needed to copy your handwriting for a family scrapbook.”
Linda’s head snapped toward Beth.
“Stop talking.”
Beth stepped farther away.
“You forged her signature.”
“I was saving your wedding.”
“You were saving yourself.”
The detective looked at Beth.
“What do you mean?”
Beth wiped her face.
The event company account was overdrawn.
The wedding resort had demanded a nonrefundable deposit.
Linda had personally guaranteed the contract.
If the payment failed, she would owe nearly $70,000 in cancellation fees.
Linda had not threatened Joanna solely for Beth.
She was protecting her own reputation.
She had already told friends, relatives, and social-club members that the wedding was fully paid.
Admitting she could not afford it would expose years of lies.
Joanna understood then.
Linda had never cared about Beth’s happiness.
She cared about the spectacle.
A wedding grand enough to prove the Simpsons were still successful.
Even if Joanna had to lose her home to pay for it.
Detective Chen turned the laptop around.
A draft version of Joanna’s forged signature was saved inside a folder labeled MONTEREY.
Linda’s face finally changed.
May you like
Fear appeared.
👉 The folder contained more than a forged signature—it contained a detailed plan for what Linda intended to do after Joanna was charged.
