Chapter 15 - The Brother They Framed
Alex went pale when Hannah showed him the document.
“That's not my signature,” he said.
He recognized the date, though.
He had been at a veterans' charity event in another city, and he had photographs and registration records to prove it.
Hannah urged him to preserve everything and to avoid contacting the Mercers.
We were now dealing with a deliberate attempt to place him inside their story.
The document claimed I had authorized funds to be moved and that Alex had witnessed my decision.
For a few hours I felt the old reflex returning: the impulse to ask whether I'd somehow forgotten signing.
Then I looked again.
The document listed my middle initial incorrectly.
Trent had made that mistake when we filed taxes the previous year, and I remembered correcting him.
It was a small error, but it gave me somewhere solid to stand.
Alex gathered evidence of his location.
The venue organizer still had the digital check-in records.
A photographer remembered him speaking onstage.
The document examiner identified discrepancies that warranted further investigation, though the result was not a courtroom verdict.
Detective Chen suspected that Richard's document strategy was beginning to fracture.
Each new paper introduced another witness, timestamp, and record that could be checked.
Richard had built a maze, but every corridor left a trail.
I tried to focus on practical things.
I attended therapy, changed my passwords with help, and opened an account Trent could not access.
Alex helped me find a secondhand rocking chair.
We argued over whether the cushions were ugly.
It was an ordinary disagreement that ended with us laughing, and I wanted to cry from relief.
The relief didn't last.
During a routine appointment, the monitor showed contractions I hadn't recognized.
Dr.
Ortiz recommended immediate evaluation.
At twenty-nine weeks, I was nowhere near ready to meet Grace.
I called Alex from the examination room and told him I was being admitted again.
He said he'd bring my bag.
I asked him to bring the notebook, too.
As the nurse wheeled me down the hall, my phone vibrated with a message from Hannah.
Richard had surrendered to investigators on a warrant relating to the financial case.
But Trent had disappeared from his listed address.
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And nobody could confirm where he was.
