Chapter 2 - The Signature That Wasn’t Hers)
Claire rented a suite under the corporate account of one of her smaller companies rather than using her personal name.
Marcus carried her suitcase upstairs.
“Should I stay?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I’ll be downstairs.”
Claire locked the door.
Then she called the only person she trusted with financial documents.
Rachel Kim answered on the second ring.
Rachel had served as Claire’s outside counsel for six years.
“Weren’t you supposed to be flying to London?”
“Plans changed.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“I need you to look at something.”
Claire forwarded the bank statement.
Rachel became silent.
“Where did you get this?”
“Anonymous message.”
“Could be fabricated.”
“I know.”
“Give me ten minutes.”
Rachel called back in seven.
“It’s real.”
Claire sat down.
“You’re certain?”
“I verified the routing information. Parker Family Holdings exists.”
“Who controls it?”
“I’m working on that.”
Claire walked toward the window.
Below her, Seattle moved normally.
People crossed streets.
Ferries moved across Elliott Bay.
Nothing outside reflected the fact that her understanding of her family was collapsing.
“Rachel, there are transfers marked with my initials.”
“I saw them.”
“I didn’t authorize them.”
“Then we have a problem.”
Another document arrived from the unknown sender.
Claire opened it.
LIMITED POWER OF ATTORNEY.
Her name appeared at the bottom.
Claire Parker.
The signature looked perfect.
Except Claire knew immediately it wasn’t hers.
She had changed the shape of the P in Parker after college.
This signature used the old version.
Someone had copied it from an older document.
Rachel swore quietly when Claire forwarded it.
“When did you sign a power of attorney?”
“I didn’t.”
“This says twelve years ago.”
“I was twenty.”
“It gives Grant Parker authority over financial accounts established for your benefit.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Established by whom?”
Rachel read farther.
Then stopped.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“This references the Reeves Parker Technology Trust.”
Claire sat completely still.
Daniel Reeves.
Again.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re my attorney.”
“And I’ve never seen it.”
Claire remembered Daniel visiting their house when she was a teenager.
He had encouraged her obsession with computers.
When Grant dismissed her first software project as a hobby, Daniel had quietly found her a summer internship.
Daniel had once told her, “Never let anyone convince you that being useful means being owned.”
At seventeen, Claire hadn’t understood.
At thirty-two, she did.
Rachel continued.
“There’s another issue.”
“What?”
“The document says your father’s authority terminated when you turned twenty-five.”
Claire looked at the bank transfers.
They continued long after that.
“So someone kept using it.”
“Yes.”
“Can we freeze the account?”
“Not yet. If we move too early, whoever is behind this starts destroying records.”
Claire’s phone rang.
Evan.
She ignored it.
A voicemail appeared.
She played it.
“Claire, stop being dramatic. Mom’s crying. Dad says you’ve completely ruined everything. Just restore the reservations and we’ll forget this happened.”
Claire deleted it.
Rachel heard.
“Charming.”
“That’s Evan being diplomatic.”
Another voicemail arrived.
Linda.
“You humiliated your father in public. Whatever argument you had, canceling a family vacation that he worked so hard to organize is disgusting. Call him and fix this.”
Claire laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the alternative was screaming.
Rachel said, “How much did Grant contribute?”
“Zero.”
“And your mother knows?”
“She knows I paid.”
“Then why did she say he organized it?”
“Because facts have always been negotiable in my family.”
Rachel paused.
“Claire, I need to ask something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why did you keep paying?”
Claire looked at the suitcase her father had thrown onto the pavement.
“Because every time I stopped, they reminded me how selfish I was.”
Rachel’s voice softened.
“Stop.”
Claire looked at the bank statement.
“I think I just did.”
Twenty minutes later, Rachel called again.
She had identified the registered manager of Parker Family Holdings.
Grant Parker.
But there was a second authorized manager.
Claire expected Linda.
It wasn’t.
Rachel sent the name.
Claire read it.
Her heart began pounding.
DANIEL REEVES.
“He’s alive,” Claire whispered.
Rachel said nothing.
Claire sent her the photograph.
Rachel stared at it.
“Jesus.”
Then someone knocked on Claire’s hotel door.
Three slow knocks.
Claire froze.
Marcus called from downstairs at exactly the same moment.
“Ms. Parker.”
“What?”
“Your father just entered the hotel.”
Another knock.
“Claire.”
May you like
Grant’s voice came through the door.
“I know you’re in there.”
