I watched his face carefully.
That was the first time real fear appeared.
Not because of the wedding.
Not because I had caught him with Madison.
Because he knew exactly which alerts I meant.
Daniel removed another document.
“At 11:42 this morning,” he said, “an attempt was made to authenticate a property-transfer packet using credentials associated with Ms.
Bennett.
At 12:06, a second attempt originated from a device previously used by Mr.
Cole.
At 12:31, supporting identification files were uploaded.”
Ethan shook his head.
“That proves nothing.
I use Claire’s devices all the time.”
“You just said the attempt came from her device,” Madison blurted.
Daniel looked at her.
“I didn’t.”
Madison froze.
Ethan turned sharply toward her.
That tiny exchange did more damage than anything I could have said.
Caroline opened the envelope Daniel had given me and removed copies of the monitored access records.
“The transfer was never going to complete,” she said.
“Claire’s attorney had already placed safeguards on the property after we identified irregular requests weeks ago.
Any attempt to process a change in ownership triggered immediate review.”
Ethan’s father recovered first.
“Then there is no crime,” he said.
“Nothing transferred.”
One of the officers looked at him.
“An unsuccessful attempt can still matter.”
His mouth closed.
I turned toward the signing table.
“What’s in the folder?”
Nobody answered.
The officer wearing gloves opened it.
The first pages were exactly what the cover announced: a property-transfer agreement prepared to make it appear that I had consented to assign an ownership interest in the house.
Then came supporting pages.
Copies of identification.
Financial disclosures.
Account references.
And a signature bearing my name.
I stared at it.
It was good.
Very good.
Whoever had practiced my signature had understood that I looped the B too widely when I signed quickly.
But there was one problem.
I hadn’t signed it.
Caroline pointed to the date.
“Claire was out of state when this was supposedly executed.”
Ethan’s father immediately said, “Electronic signatures exist.”
“So do metadata records,” Daniel replied.
The confidence drained from his face again.
Ethan began talking faster.
“My father had nothing to do with this.
Neither did Madison.
If there’s some mistake in those files, maybe the preparer made it.
