Chapter 4: Eight O'Clock Sharp
Diana's office was on the fourth floor of a building that smelled like coffee and carpet cleaner.
She met me at the elevator with two cups and no small talk.
"Show me the drive first."
I handed it to her.
She plugged it into her laptop while I sat across from her desk and watched her face.
Diana had a lawyer's face — trained not to react.
But halfway through the files, her jaw tightened.
"How long have you been collecting this?"
"Six months.
Since I found the first loan application in our shared printer queue.
Brandon had forgotten to clear it."
"And he never knew you had this?"
"No.
I kept the drive at my office.
I only brought it home last night because I had a feeling something was about to happen."
She scrolled.
Stopped.
Scrolled again.
"Charlotte.
There are five loan applications here.
Three of them show a co-borrower signature."
"I never signed anything."
"I know." She turned the laptop to face me.
"That's not your signature."
I leaned forward.
The signature on the screen used my name.
The loops were close.
Someone had practiced.
But the way I cross the *t* in Charlotte, the slight leftward pull at the end — it wasn't there.
"They forged it," I said.
"Three times.
The first two loans were smaller — they may have been tests.
The third is the $180,000 against the house equity.
That one is the one the architect's deposit was supposed to come from." She closed the laptop.
"Charlotte, this is bank fraud.
This is identity theft.
This is wire fraud if any of it crossed state lines, which it likely did."
"What do I do?"
"You've already done the most important thing.
You have the evidence and you didn't sign anything last night." She picked up her pen.
"Here is what happens today.
I file for an emergency protective order on the property — that stops any transaction on the house until a court reviews it.
I contact the lender and flag the forged signatures.
And you go to the police and file a report."
"Brandon is still my husband."
"Yes.
And he committed fraud against you.
Those two things can both be true." She looked at me steadily.
"Do you want to protect him?"
I thought about Skylar hiding her instant soup behind her back.
"No."
"Then we move today.
All of it." She stood.
"There's one more thing.
The architect coming this morning — do you know his name?"
"Hailey's message just said 'the architect.'"
"I'm going to need you to call Brandon.
Right now, from this office.
I want to hear what he says when he thinks he still has a chance to talk you out of this."
I looked at her.
"You want me to record it."
"California is a two-party consent state.
I want you to tell him at the start of the call that you're recording.
If he keeps talking after that, everything he says is usable." She slid her phone across the desk.
"Use mine.
His number is already in your phone — read it to me and I'll dial."
My hands were steady when I read out the number.
I hadn't expected that.
Brandon answered in four seconds.
"Charlotte.
Thank God.
Listen, the architect gets there at nine, we still have time to—"
"Brandon, I'm recording this call.
I'm in my attorney's office."
Silence.
Then: "Your attorney."
"Yes.
I need you to tell me about the loans.
All of them.
Starting with the first one."
A long pause.
When he spoke again, his voice had changed.
Flatter.
Careful.
"I'm not talking about loans on a recorded line."
"Then I'll find out another way.
Diana is filing the protective order on the house in the next hour.
The lender has already been contacted about the signatures."
The pause this time was shorter.
"Charlotte, if you do this, Mom loses everything.
You understand that?
She put her savings into this.
She believed in the plan."
"What plan, Brandon?
Say it out loud."
Nothing.
Then, from somewhere near him, Gertrude's voice — sharp and close, as if she had grabbed the phone:
"You think you're so smart.
You think you've won something.
You don't know what we still have."
Diana's pen stopped moving.
Her eyes met mine across the desk.
I kept my voice level.
May you like
"What do you still have, Gertrude?"
The line went d*ad.
