Chapter 2 - WHAT LEO HEARD
I locked the car doors before calling Dana Price.
Dana had represented me since I licensed my structural-joint designs to Bennett Timberworks six years earlier. She answered on the fourth ring.
“Aaron?”
“Someone filed a proxy with my signature.”
“Did you sign electronically?”
“No.”
“Did you give anyone permission?”
“No.”
“Send it to me. Do not contact Evan or Richard yet.”
From the passenger seat, Leo held the broken dragon against his chest.
“Are we in trouble?”
“No.”
It was a lie meant to make the next five minutes survivable.
I forwarded the document. Dana called back after opening it.
“The certificate shows it was signed through your corporate account at eight forty-two.”
“At eight forty-two, Evan was smashing Leo’s castle.”
“Who has access to your account?”
“No one.”
“Who has access to a device where you stayed logged in?”
The answer formed before I wanted it.
My tablet had been inside Leo’s backpack.
Evan had not searched it for dragon wings.
“Go directly home,” Dana said. “Change every password from a clean device. Preserve the backpack and tablet. Do not reset anything.”
When we reached our townhouse, Leo refused to leave the broken pieces in the car.
We carried them into the kitchen and laid them across the table.
The miniature castle had been modeled after Richard’s first mill: four towers, a central gate, and a dragon over the entrance. Leo had designed the dragon himself.
“I made it ugly,” he whispered.
I knelt beside him.
“Evan did something ugly. That is not the same thing.”
“Everybody laughed.”
“They were wrong.”
“Grandpa laughed too.”
I could not defend Richard without lying again.
“Yes.”
Leo turned the headless dragon in his hands.
“Was it because you wouldn’t sign?”
My pulse changed.
“What did you hear?”
He looked frightened, as if repeating the words might make him responsible.
“I was under the dessert table.”
“Why?”
“Aunt Linda said I had crumbs on my sweater.”
I waited.
“Grandpa told Uncle Evan you were taking too long. Uncle Evan said you would leave if they pushed. Then Grandpa said…” Leo’s voice faded.
“What did he say?”
“He said I was the only thing you cared about more than being right.”
The room seemed to contract around us.
“Anything else?”
Leo nodded.
“He said, ‘Make the boy cry, and Aaron will sign whatever gets him out of the room.’”
I sat very still.
Evan’s violence had not been an impulsive joke.
The laughter had not been spontaneous.
My father had predicted exactly how I would react.
I checked the tablet without opening corporate files. The device was warm, though I had shut it down before leaving home that afternoon.
Dana arranged for a forensic technician to collect it.
At midnight, the first result arrived.
Someone had used my saved credentials at 8:39 p.m., three minutes before the proxy was executed.
At 8:41, the user opened the bank letter Leo said Evan removed.
At 8:42, my signature was placed on the proxy.
At 8:43, a photograph was taken with the tablet’s rear camera.
The image showed the marble floor, Evan’s leather shoe, and the base of Leo’s castle before it was destroyed.
The forgery had been completed while my family was gathering around my son.
Then Dana called again.
“The proxy was not the only document submitted tonight.”
“What else?”
“A personal guarantee for the company’s credit line.”
“How much?”
May you like
“Four point two million dollars.”
The guarantee pledged my Bennett Timberworks shares—and listed my home as additional collateral.
