Part 3

I did not call the police from the hotel hallway. I called Denise Harper, the attorney who had represented my mother and knew the history of my shares in the Langford. She asked for photographs of the page, not the original folder, and told us to preserve every message we had received.

Madison hesitated before forwarding hers. “People already think I was trying to take your place,” she said. “If this gets out, no one will believe me.”

“You knew he was married?” I asked.

“I knew he had been. He told me you had separated, and he showed me papers he said were filed.” She gave me a copy. The papers contained my name, but the court stamp was not a court stamp at all. Denise confirmed that no divorce petition bearing that number existed.

I was angry at Madison for the photographs she had posted, for the comments she had encouraged, and for trusting a story she had never asked me to confirm. But anger did not make her responsible for documents Dominic had forged. She agreed to remove the posts and publish a correction after Denise reviewed it.

Dominic insisted that the signature issue was a misunderstanding. Then he said Madison had pushed him to accelerate the agreement. Madison opened her inbox and showed me her repeated requests for a meeting with me. Dominic had answered each one himself.

Denise arrived with a colleague before either of us agreed to leave. Dominic gave her the folder after she explained that the hotel’s security cameras had recorded all three of us at the door. She made an inventory and gave everyone a copy.

On the last page was an amendment transferring control over a private account. The transfer would take effect at nine the next morning.