Chapter 5 - THE SIGNATURE THEY STOLE
A forensic document specialist compared the forms.
My genuine 2023 authorization contained a scanned signature.
Later versions used the same image.
Exactly.
Same pen pressure.
Same tiny break in the “R.”
Nobody had imitated my handwriting.
They copied it.
Digital records showed the image file had been created from the original PDF.
Then attached repeatedly.
The user account submitting the forms belonged to Ashley.
Secondary verification codes went to a phone ending in 4421.
My mother’s number.
I stared at Martin.
“No.”
He did not speak.
“That’s Mom.”
“Yes.”
“Could Ashley have entered her number without Mom knowing?”
“Technically.”
“Could she receive the codes?”
“Only if she had access to Diane’s phone or Diane provided them.”
I remembered my mother’s face.
Ashley panicking.
Mom shaking her head.
May you like
Do not say more.
The family was beginning to look less like chaos and more like a system.
