Chapter 7 - Mark’s Final Trap
Mark laughed.
It was not the reaction Anna expected.
“You can’t freeze anything,” he said. “The authorization has already been approved.”
Anna’s stomach tightened.
Mark pulled out his phone and displayed an email confirming that the sale documents had been submitted.
“The transfer begins at midnight,” he continued. “By the time the banks reopen, it will be finished.”
One of the board members examined the screen.
“He may be right. The system is automated.”
Mark looked almost triumphant.
“You should have accepted James’s money, Anna. At least you would have had something.”
James opened the folder again.
“There’s another document.”
Beneath the forged sale contract lay a copy of a company bylaw signed by Anna’s father fifteen years earlier.
Any sale involving historic properties required confirmation from two Halstead family trustees.
Anna was the first.
The second trustee had remained confidential.
Mark had assumed the second trustee was Anna’s elderly aunt, who had died the previous year.
He was wrong.
James turned toward the doorway.
A silver-haired woman entered wearing a dark blue dress.
Margaret Lane had served as the Halstead family’s attorney for more than three decades.
She held up her phone.
“As the surviving trustee, I rejected the transfer twenty minutes ago.”
Mark’s confidence vanished.
Margaret continued.
“The development company has been notified that the contract contains forged signatures. Their legal department has suspended the purchase and agreed to cooperate.”
“You can’t prove I forged anything,” Mark said.
Anna removed her wedding ring.
“Perhaps not tonight.”
She placed it on top of the black folder.
“But you’ll have plenty of time to explain it.”
May you like
Outside, vehicles arrived quietly at the front gates.
James had contacted federal investigators that morning.
