“Why?” Mom asked.
“Because if you’re claiming residency, I want to see what you used.”
For a second, greed beat caution.
She pulled a folder from her purse. Inside were utility statements, change-of-address confirmations, and a typed “family occupancy agreement.”
At the bottom was my name.
And a signature that wasn’t mine.
My mother smiled. “You agreed months ago.”
Evan whispered, “Claire…”
I photographed the paper without touching it.
“Interesting.”
Mom’s confidence returned. “So now you understand. We have rights.”
That confirmed she had targeted the wrong person.
Before maternity leave, I worked as a compliance attorney for a regional bank. Fraud documentation wasn’t mysterious to me. Neither were timestamps, signatures, IP logs, or preservation requests.
While waiting for the officers, I sent three messages: one to my attorney, one to the trust’s property manager, and one to the investigator already handling the credit-card incident.
