Chapter 14 - A Name Used Without Permission
On the drive home I repeated Richard's words until they sounded like a warning from another time.
You should ask your daughter what she promised us.
Phoebe had been a teacher, not a developer.
She had never met Richard as far as I knew.
Yet her name had appeared in the guardianship draft, and now he had invoked her as though she were part of his plan.
I called an old friend of hers, Denise, who had helped Phoebe organize community meetings about neighborhood development years earlier.
Denise remembered a dispute about a proposed access road.
Phoebe had written a letter opposing a change that would make the street less safe for children walking to school.
The developer, Denise said, had been a company affiliated with Richard.
I found a copy of Phoebe's letter in a box of her papers.
It was dated four years before the wedding.
She'd signed as a resident and concerned parent.
Richard's office had replied with a formal acknowledgment.
That explained how he knew her name.
It did not explain why anyone would imply she'd consented to a new plan after her death.
I brought the correspondence to Naomi.
She reviewed the dates and cautioned us that mistaken drafting and deliberate misrepresentation were different conclusions.
But she agreed the documents raised serious questions.
Emmett insisted every allegation be checked before anyone else was accused.
I was proud of him for that.
At home, Margot wanted to make a new drawing.
This time she drew herself between her father and me, with Phoebe as a star in the sky above the house.
“Where's Claire?” I asked gently.
Margot looked at the paper for a long moment.
“She can be in another picture if she wants,” she said.
Her generosity made my eyes sting.
That evening, Claire requested a meeting with Emmett alone.
He said he would speak to her with a neutral third party present and no child involved.
She accepted with unusual speed.
Minutes later, she sent him a single photograph.
It showed a signed page from a document we had never seen before.
At the top were the words: Postnuptial Property Agreement.
May you like
At the bottom was a signature that appeared to be Emmett's.
