Chapter 10 - The Second Copy
We returned to the storage unit looking for a second set of records.
It wasn't there.
June checked her files and found a receipt for a safe-deposit box opened while Mom was still alive.
The bank had since merged with another institution, and accessing the box required a careful review of the old authorization documents.
Daniel arranged that instead of demanding immediate entry.
In the meantime, Maria's attorney sent a letter accusing me of harassment and claiming the property had been legitimately sold.
It demanded that I stop contacting Hazel and withdraw any allegations of forgery.
I hadn't contacted Hazel at all.
She had come to my workplace.
Tessa had witnessed it.
The letter made my hands shake anyway.
I remembered being fourteen, standing in the hallway while Maria insisted that Hazel hadn't touched my jewelry.
Even then, the question had never been whether something happened.
It had been whether I was allowed to talk about it.
Daniel responded with documentation and a request to preserve relevant devices, notary records, and transaction files.
Then came our first real break.
The title company's archive included a scanned identification card supposedly presented by me at the signing.
The address was our old house.
The photograph, however, was partly obscured by a scanner streak.
Daniel obtained the original image through discovery procedures after the case was filed.
Even with the damage, the face was clearly not mine.
It was Hazel's.
For a minute I could barely breathe.
She had sat across from me at dinner for years, smiling while I apologized for things I hadn't done.
Then she'd used my name to take what Mom left me.
But the discovery contained another detail.
The notary's journal identified the person who accompanied the supposed Zoe Bennett Carter.
Carter.
May you like
My father.
