Chapter 9 - What Grace Signed
They made it out before the cottage caught.
Barely.
The first window blew outward while Grace was still in the yard.
Rosa knocked her down behind a stone well as glass burst across the weeds.
The investigators dragged a garden hose from a spigot, but the cottage was already breathing fire through the roof.
Grace watched the bathroom collapse.
Another copy gone.
Another place Daniel had somehow known to search.
Rosa sat on the grass with both hands over her face.
“I told one person,” she said.
Grace turned.
“You said no one knew.”
“I forgot.”
“That’s not forgetting.”
Rosa dropped her hands. “I told my nephew.”
“When?”
“Months ago. After I hid the card.”
Grace’s anger came fast. “Why?”
“Because he asked why I was still working for people I hated.”
“And you gave him the location?”
“I was angry.”
“That’s your answer?”
Rosa stood. “Yes. It’s a bad answer. People have those.”
Grace looked away.
She wanted someone else to be perfect so she could be furious cleanly.
Nobody cooperated.
At the sheriff’s office that evening, Grace finally read the full Cedar Pines certification bearing her signature.
Page four made her sick.
The form did not merely acknowledge completed repairs.
It stated that Grace Nolan, acting as a company officer, had personally reviewed invoices, repair photographs, and contractor sign-offs.
She had done none of that.
Her signature sat below the sentence.
Blue ink.
Her handwriting.
No forgery.
The state investigator across from her said, “Did your husband force you to sign this?”
“No.”
“Did he misrepresent it?”
“Yes. But…”
“But you didn’t read it.”
Grace looked at the table.
“No.”
The investigator tapped the page. “That matters.”
“I know.”
Rosa sat behind her, unusually quiet.
The investigator turned another page.
“Two weeks after you signed this, the company paid a contractor called Morrow Safety Solutions eighty-six thousand dollars.”
Grace frowned.
“I don’t know that company.”
“You approved the transfer.”
Her stomach dropped.
He slid over a bank authorization.
There was her login stamp.
But not her signature.
Grace leaned closer.
“That payment happened at 6:41 a.m.”
“So?”
“I was in surgery.”
The investigator looked up.
Grace touched the old scar low on her abdomen through her dress. A procedure after an early pregnancy complication. Daniel had sat beside her bed all morning.
Or she thought he had.
The investigator asked, “Who had access to your banking credentials?”
Grace answered without looking at Rosa.
“My husband.”
The room went quiet.
Then the investigator’s phone rang.
He listened for less than ten seconds.
His eyes moved to Rosa.
“What?” Rosa asked.
The investigator ended the call.
“We found your nephew.”
Rosa stood.
“Is Mateo okay?”
May you like
The investigator did not answer the question.
He said, “He was arrested trying to sell a memory card to Daniel Nolan.”
