Chapter 4: The Woman Who Signed Lucy's Name
Edward's attorney was a compact, precise woman named Grace Holloway.
She arrived at the hotel at eight the next morning carrying a leather document case and a coffee she had not touched.
She shook Lucy's hand, sat down, and opened the case without pleasantries.
"I pulled the full property chain last night," Grace said.
"The Pinecrest deed was originally recorded in Lucy Anne Vance's name on March 14th, two years ago.
That matches the gift transfer from Edward Vance." She laid a photocopy on the table.
"Fourteen months ago, a second instrument was filed.
A voluntary transfer of title.
Signed by Lucy Anne Vance."
Lucy looked at the signature.
It was close.
Very close.
The loop on the L, the way the y dropped below the line.
But the pressure was wrong.
She had always pressed hard with a pen — a habit from years of accounting coursework.
This signature sat lightly on the paper, almost floating.
"That's not my signature," Lucy said.
"I know," Grace said.
"I had a forensic document examiner look at a scan overnight.
Preliminary opinion is that it's a practiced forgery.
Good enough to pass a standard title review.
Not good enough to survive scrutiny."
"Who filed it?"
"The filing agent was a notary named Patrick Seel.
He's affiliated with a small firm in the Pinecrest district." Grace turned another page.
"That firm has handled three other property transactions in the past two years.
All three involved transfers out of a spouse's name shortly after a medical event."
The table went quiet.
"He's done this before," Edward said.
"We don't know that Julian is connected to the other transactions," Grace said carefully.
"But the pattern is worth noting." She looked at Lucy.
"Were you ever asked to sign anything during your hospital stay after Ethan was born?"
Lucy thought back.
The hospital.
The weeks of recovery.
The fog of pain medication and exhaustion and fear for her newborn son.
"Julian brought papers a few times," she said slowly.
"He said they were insurance forms.
Discharge paperwork.
I signed whatever he put in front of me.
I couldn't even sit up properly."
Grace wrote something down without looking up.
"That's likely when it started," she said.
"He may have used a document from that period to establish a signature sample for the forgery."
"He planned it from the hospital," Lucy said.
Not a question.
Grace gave a short nod.
"What about Diane Marsh?" Edward asked.
Grace turned another page.
"Diane Colette Marsh.
Thirty-four years old.
She works as a private wealth coordinator at a financial services firm in the Pinecrest area." A pause.
"She has been listed as a co-resident at the Pinecrest address for eleven months."
"Eleven months," Lucy said.
"He moved her in eleven months ago."
"Yes."
"Ethan and I were still — " She stopped.
"He was still calling me every night eleven months ago.
Wearing that dirty work shirt.
Complaining about the night shift."
Grace did not look away.
"I'm sorry," she said.
It was the first thing she had said that wasn't a fact.
Lucy nodded once.
She pressed her hands flat on the table again.
That gesture was becoming something — a way of holding herself in place when the ground kept shifting.
"What can we do before Saturday?" she asked.
"Quite a lot," Grace said.
"I can file an emergency motion to freeze any further transfer or encumbrance of the Pinecrest property today.
That prevents Julian from selling, refinancing, or otherwise moving the asset before we can challenge the forged deed." She looked at Edward.
"I'll need your original gift transfer documentation."
"I have it," Edward said.
"Good.
I'll also need Lucy to provide a formal statement about the signature.
And I want the tablet." Grace looked at Lucy.
"The wedding invitation, the photographs — all of it.
That establishes his presence at the property and his intent to treat it as his own."
Lucy reached into her bag and set the tablet on the table.
Grace picked it up.
She scrolled for a moment.
She stopped.
"Is this the necklace?" she asked, turning the screen toward Lucy.
The sapphire necklace.
In the velvet box.
On what appeared to be a dressing table inside the Pinecrest master bedroom.
"It belonged to my mother," Lucy said.
"Julian told me it was lost."
Grace set the tablet down carefully.
"It's inside the property," she said.
"That makes it potentially recoverable as part of the estate claim." She closed her document case.
"I'll have the freeze motion filed by noon."
She stood to leave.
"One more thing," Lucy said.
"Julian doesn't know I've spoken to my grandfather.
He texted me last night.
I replied normally."
Grace looked at her with something that might have been respect.
"Keep it that way," she said.
"Don't change your behavior.
Don't confront him.
Don't give him any reason to move assets or contact his own attorney before we're ready."
"How long do we have before he realizes something is wrong?"
Grace picked up her untouched coffee.
"If he checks the property registry," she said, "about forty-eight hours after I file."
She walked to the door and stopped with her hand on the frame.
"The wedding is Saturday," she said.
"We file today.
That gives us Friday." She looked back at Lucy.
"Be ready."
The door closed behind her.
Edward looked at his granddaughter across the table.
Lucy was already thinking about what Julian would say when he found out.
She was already building the conversation in her head, the way she used to rehearse arguments for her accounting exams — every angle, every counter, every weak point.
She knew him.
She had believed every lie he told for five years.
That meant she also knew exactly how he would fight back.
Her phone buzzed.
Julian again.
*Thinking about you today.
May you like
Miss you both.*
She put the phone in her bag without answering.
