Part 4

At eight the next morning, Denise and I met with the bank’s compliance team. Madison attended separately with her own lawyer. We gave the team the disputed agreement, my specimen signatures, and the messages Dominic had sent. The bank placed the transfer on hold while it checked the authorization.

Dominic called eleven times. When I finally answered, he said he had only meant to protect the hotel from a difficult investor. “I was going to tell you when I could explain it properly.”

“You had five years to tell me I was your partner,” I replied. “You had months to tell Madison the truth. This morning you can tell the bank.”

The banker confirmed that the amendment needed both owners’ approval. My mother had insisted on that provision when she helped establish the trust holding my stake. Dominic knew the rule: he had signed it with me.

By noon, Madison’s company suspended negotiations. She did not ask me to forgive her; she asked for a written record that she had not approved the false signature. Denise said the investigation would determine what happened, and the request would be included.

When I returned to our apartment, Dominic was waiting in the kitchen. He had changed into a suit, but the silver watch from the hotel photographs was still on his wrist. “You are making me look like a criminal,” he said.

“I have shown the bank what you signed in my name,” I answered. “What they call it is not my decision.”

He put an envelope on the counter. Inside were copies of our old partnership agreements and a letter from his sister. The letter had been written six months earlier. It warned that Dominic had been using the company’s money to cover a private debt.

I read it twice. Then I asked him why his sister had sent the warning to him instead of to me.