Chapter 3 - THE SIGNATURE PAIGE WITNESSED
Daniel did not call Vanessa from the bank.
He did not drive home angry.
He drove Eleanor to a diner on Ogden Avenue and ordered coffee neither of them drank.
“You’re sure you never hired that law firm?”
Eleanor shook her head.
“I’ve never even heard of it.”
“Did Vanessa ever ask you to sign anything?”
His mother’s eyes dropped to the paper placemat.
Daniel saw the answer before she spoke.
“What did you sign?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mom.”
“She told me it was paperwork for Medicare.”
“Medicare doesn’t charge five thousand dollars to a divorce firm.”
“I know that now.”
“When?”
“September.”
“What did it look like?”
“There were a lot of pages.”
“Did you read them?”
Vanessa’s favorite accusation about Eleanor returned to him.
Old.
Confused.
A burden.
Eleanor’s face tightened.
“I tried.”
“I’m not blaming you.”
“She kept flipping the pages. She said there was a deadline.”
“Was anyone else there?”
His mother looked at him.
“Paige.”
Daniel leaned back.
At noon, Paige texted Vanessa that she had an extra class at College of DuPage.
Daniel knew she did not.
He had paid her tuition.
He waited outside the coffee shop across from campus until she arrived alone.
When she saw him through the window, she nearly turned around.
Daniel raised one hand.
She came inside.
“I have forty minutes.”
“You don’t have class.”
Paige dropped into the chair opposite him.
“Okay.”
“What did Grandma sign in September?”
Her face closed.
“I don’t remember.”
“You witnessed it.”
“I sign things all the time.”
“Not things involving my mother.”
Paige rubbed both hands over her face.
“Daniel.”
He had always liked that she called him Daniel instead of Dad.
At eleven, she had asked permission.
Her biological father, Scott, lived in Arizona and called twice a year.
Daniel had told her she never owed him a title.
Now hearing his name sounded like distance.
“The payment came from Grandma’s account,” he said.
“What payment?”
“Four thousand eight hundred dollars to Benton & Chase.”
Paige looked genuinely confused.
“What’s that?”
“A divorce firm.”
She stared at him.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, Mom said—”
Paige stopped.
“What did she say?”
“Nothing.”
“What did she say?”
Paige’s coffee shook when she picked it up.
“She said she needed a lawyer because your company was collapsing and creditors could come after the house.”
Daniel stayed very still.
“She told you that?”
“She told all of us that.”
“What did Grandma sign?”
Paige whispered, “A power of attorney.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“For what?”
“She said if Grandma got sick, Mom needed authority to pay bills.”
“Did Grandma know that?”
“I thought she did.”
“Did you read it?”
“No.”
“Why did you witness it?”
“Because Mom asked me to.”
Paige shoved the coffee away.
“You were gone, Daniel. She kept saying everything was falling apart. The mortgage. Your business. You. She said you weren’t sleeping. She said you had panic attacks in Singapore.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
Paige looked toward the window.
“Because people having nervous breakdowns usually don’t get interviewed by Bloomberg about freight software.”
Daniel blinked.
The article had run six months earlier.
It had described Mercer Route Systems as “a quiet acquisition target.”
Vanessa had told him she never saw it.
“Your mother read that article?”
“Everybody did.”
Daniel said nothing.
Paige’s shoulders dropped.
“Mom said journalists make things up.”
“And you believed her?”
“For a while.”
“What changed?”
Paige pressed her lips together.
“The cameras.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Show me.”
“No.”
“Paige.”
“If I give you the videos, you’re going to destroy her.”
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m going to protect my mother.”
“That sounds the same from where I’m sitting.”
He let that sit between them.
Finally Daniel said, “Did she hurt Grandma?”
Paige stared at the table.
“Yes.”
The word barely came out.
“How bad?”
“I don’t know.”
“You downloaded forty-two videos.”
“I didn’t watch all of them.”
“Why download them?”
“Because she was deleting them.”
Daniel felt his pulse in his temples.
“How did you know?”
“I heard Grandma crying in the laundry room. I checked the camera app on Mom’s old iPad because she used to let me see the driveway feed.”
“Then?”
“There was a clip of Mom grabbing Grandma’s wrist.”
“What did you do?”
“I confronted her.”
Paige’s laugh broke in the middle.
“She told me Grandma had tried to slap her first.”
“Did the video show that?”
“No.”
“So you started saving clips.”
Paige nodded.
“Then Mom changed the password.”
“That was 117 days ago.”
Paige looked up sharply.
“You checked.”
“Yes.”
She rubbed her sleeve over a coffee stain that wasn’t there.
“I’d already saved most of them.”
“Where?”
“My iPad.”
“Can I see them?”
Paige’s face tightened.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s stuff you don’t understand.”
“Help me.”
“You’ll hate me.”
“I won’t.”
“You don’t know what I did.”
Daniel waited.
Paige whispered, “I signed one of the papers.”
The diner noise seemed to disappear.
“What paper?”
“Mom said it was just confirming Grandma wanted her to manage money.”
“You signed as witness?”
“Yes.”
“Was Grandma there?”
Paige nodded.
“Did she sign willingly?”
A tear slid down Paige’s cheek.
“She kept saying she wanted to call you first.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“Mom took her phone.”
He looked away.
For several seconds he watched cars move along Route 34.
“What happened after the papers?”
“Mom got access to Grandma’s checking account.”
Daniel already knew that.
“What else?”
Paige’s eyes shifted.
“There was another document.”
“What document?”
“I didn’t sign that one.”
“Why?”
“Because I finally read the top.”
Daniel waited.
Paige whispered, “It said Durable Power of Attorney for Property.”
His phone vibrated.
A message from Vanessa.
WHERE ARE YOU?
He ignored it.
“Do you still have a copy?”
“No.”
“Does your mother?”
“Probably.”
“Where?”
Paige hesitated.
Then she pulled out her phone.
“I took a picture.”
She found it and slid the phone across the table.
The image was crooked.
Eleanor’s signature appeared near the bottom.
Paige’s name appeared beneath WITNESS.
And above both was a paragraph authorizing Vanessa to access accounts, manage investments, sign tax documents, and conduct real-estate transactions on Eleanor’s behalf.
Daniel zoomed in.
The notary section was blank.
“That may not be valid,” he said.
Paige wiped her cheek.
“Mom knew.”
“What?”
“She said she still needed a notary.”
“Did she get one?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel scrolled farther.
A yellow sticky note was visible at the top edge of the photograph.
Vanessa’s handwriting.
ELEANOR FIRST.
DANIEL NEXT.
Daniel turned the phone toward Paige.
“What does this mean?”
Paige stared at the note.
“I’ve never seen that.”
“Your mother planned to get power of attorney over me?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel handed the phone back.
“Send me the picture.”
Paige did.
Then Daniel noticed something beneath the sticky note.
A logo.
A blue roof inside a silver circle.
He knew it.
His accountant used the same courier service for confidential deal documents.
Daniel zoomed in on the corner of the paper beneath the legal form.
MERCER ROUTE SYSTEMS
ACQUISITION SUMMARY
He looked at Paige.
“Where did your mother get this?”
“I don’t know.”
The visible line beneath the heading contained only six words.
PROPOSED EQUITY CONSIDERATION: $8.2 MILLION.
Daniel stopped breathing for a moment.
Vanessa had known.
Long before he came home.
May you like
Long before she told Eleanor he was broke.
She had known exactly how much his company sale was worth.
