My Sister’s Signature
Chapter 07 - My Sister’s Signature
Lauren wanted to call the police immediately.
My mother begged us to wait.
I turned on her.
“Why?”
She looked seventy instead of sixty-five.
“Because if Thomas has what I think he has, this is bigger than a forged signature.”
I felt anger rise so fast it frightened me.
“What does he have?”
“The foundation records.”
Our family foundation managed scholarships, emergency employee grants, and donations to three coastal clinics. It was the one part of Hale Maritime my mother understood completely.
Or so I had believed.
She explained that the laptop contained access to old financial reports and encrypted backups from the years after my father’s death.
“Why would Thomas want them?”
Mom stared at her hands.
“Because I started asking questions.”
The cash crisis had never made sense to her. Hale Maritime had profitable contracts, limited long-term debt, and enough reserves to survive a bad year.
Yet Thomas kept reporting urgent shortages.
Two months earlier, Mom had noticed repeated consulting payments to a company called Northline Strategic.
The payments totaled nearly six million dollars.
Lauren pulled out her phone.
“I’ve never heard of Northline.”
Neither had I.
Grant had.
I saw it before he could hide his reaction.
“What is Northline?”
“Consulting firm.”
“Who owns it?”
“I don’t know.”
Celeste spoke quietly.
“I do.”
Grant closed his eyes.
She looked at me.
“Northline is connected to Grant’s former law partner.”
The room fell silent again.
I almost laughed at the pattern.
Every time I thought we had reached the bottom, someone opened another door beneath us.
Celeste continued.
“Grant told me Northline handled restructuring projects. I helped prepare a presentation for them once.”
“Did Thomas attend?”
“Yes.”
Grant stood.
“That proves nothing.”
“No,” I said. “But Lauren’s forged signature proves somebody was willing to commit fraud.”
His face tightened.
I turned to my sister.
“Call the police.”
Mom began to protest.
I held up my hand.
“No.”
My voice was calm now.
“I spent forty years in this family watching everyone protect the company’s reputation. Dad protected it. You protected it. Thomas built his whole life around it. And today I almost married a man who counted on me doing the same thing.”
I looked at Grant.
“That ends today.”
Lauren made the call.
As she spoke to the dispatcher, my phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
One photograph.
It showed Uncle Thomas standing outside the Harbor Street bank beside a black SUV.
The timestamp was from ten minutes earlier.
May you like
Under the photo was a message.
Stop asking questions about Northline, or your mother loses everything.
