Chapter 5 - THE SIGNATURE UNDER MY NAME
The school refused to release Josephine because I had placed an emergency restriction on her file.
Margaret waited in the office until police arrived.
She claimed Bennett had signed the authorization weeks earlier in case of work travel.
The notary seal belonged to a Cole Heritage employee who handled shipping affidavits.
He denied witnessing my signature.
Margaret was not charged immediately.
Investigators needed to determine who created the document and whether she knew it was false.
Josephine heard enough to understand that her grandmother had tried to take her.
That night she pushed a chair beneath the hotel door handle.
I wanted to promise no one could reach her.
Promises were not locks.
I moved us to an apartment arranged through Mara and told only three people the address.
Silas.
Mara.
My assistant at the company.
Within twelve hours, Clara sent a fruit basket there.
Someone had leaked it.
I accused Silas.
He stared at me as if I had struck him.
“You think I gave them Josephine?”
“I think you still want Dad’s approval.”
“So did you until three months ago.”
The answer was cruel because it was true.
I had defended Robert for years after Anna’s death. I accepted his claim that grief made me suspicious. I allowed him to remove me from design decisions while keeping me as the respectable son in company photographs.
Silas left.
Hours later, police searched my truck under a warrant connected to the mansion burglary.
They found a plastic monkey head beneath the rear seat.
It matched the missing prototype.
I had never seen it.
The evidence technician photographed everything before touching it.
The head contained no visible recording device.
Robert’s attorney announced that stolen company property had been recovered from my vehicle.
Mara warned that the discovery could damage our preservation case.
“How did they know where to search?”
“An anonymous tip.”
The tip came from a disposable phone purchased near Silas’s apartment.
I believed my brother had betrayed me.
Then Silas sent one photograph before his phone went dark.
May you like
It showed Clara placing something inside my unlocked truck during the Christmas dinner.
The timestamp was eleven minutes before Robert handed Josephine the toy.
