Chapter 13 - The Instruction
Celeste arrived at Maya's office with her own attorney. She looked smaller without Nathan beside her, though I remembered the smile she'd worn while I was on the floor.
“I didn't sign your name,” she said immediately. “I helped assemble the packet. I knew the signature came from an archived card, and I didn't ask why.”
Her lawyer laid a printout on the table. In a message to Nathan, Martin had written: Use the signature card Helena kept for the old insurance file. The formal direction must look like it was executed before Emma's birthday. We can't have the vote questioned on Friday.
There was also an invoice from a document-preparation service and correspondence about a notarial certificate. None of it proved every step of the forgery on its own. Together with my travel receipts, the original signature card, and Celeste's account, it was enough for Maya to make an urgent submission to the company's outside counsel.
“Why are you telling us now?” I asked.
Celeste stared at her shoes. “Because he lied to me. Because Nathan lied to both of us. And because I watched what happened in the store and did nothing.”
Her attorney warned her not to make further statements without advice. Celeste nodded, then looked at me.
“I don't expect forgiveness.”
“Good,” I said. “I don't have any.”
She took that without looking away.
At noon Esther called an emergency session of the independent board committee. The members agreed that the challenged proxy would not be relied on for Friday's vote while its authenticity remained unresolved. Nathan protested through counsel, claiming the document was genuine, but he agreed not to use it pending a formal review.
The company's financing problem, however, did not go away with that decision. The buyer's offer expired at five Friday afternoon. Without the sale, our lender could demand an updated repayment plan, and vendors were already shortening their payment terms.
Maya leaned against the conference table after everyone left.
“You've protected your right to choose,” she said. “Now you have to make a choice.”
For a moment I wanted my mother to tell me what to do. Then I remembered how many choices she'd made on my behalf, and what those choices had cost.
I called Theo.
May you like
“I need to understand what happens to the people in the workshop if I vote no.”
“Come tomorrow morning,” he said. “And come ready to hear things you won't like.”
