Chapter 16 - Mark finds his own signature nowhere
Mark had feared Rachel might have signed his name somewhere.
She had not.
Good.
His name appeared on:
Event guest lists.
Family contact sheets.
One internal vendor note:
Mark Hale can approve in Thomas’s absence.
Where did that come from?
Rachel.
Had Mark ever approved?
Once.
A Christmas dinner flower overage.
$3,800.
Could that be interpreted as broad authority?
No sensible lawyer thought so.
Still, the note showed vendors believed more family members backed the account than actually did.
Mark sent formal written notice:
He was not an account guarantor.
He had no authority to bind Thomas.
He did not authorize use of his name for outside client credit.
That closed one ambiguity.
Then he looked at me.
“I should have done this years ago.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I knew Rachel used our name constantly.”
Different.
May you like
He had not known the mechanism.
He had known the culture.
