He came for his PS5… and heard another man in her bedroom. 😱

Paul Mercer was holding a folder against his chest.

“I know I should have called,” he said. “Your lawyer wouldn’t give me your number. I found the address in the file.”

I kept the door partly closed. “Why are you here?”

“Because the signature I notarized may not be yours.”

Mom appeared behind me. I asked her to take Noah into the kitchen. Then I stepped onto the porch and closed the door.

Paul looked exhausted. He said Owen had brought the papers to his office on Thursday afternoon. A man with identification in my name had signed while Paul watched.

“You saw his face?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And you know it wasn’t me now?”

“I saw your photograph with your attorney’s dispute notice. It wasn’t the same man.”

My skin went cold.

I had assumed someone copied my signature. They had also found a man willing to pretend to be me.

“Why didn’t you tell Detective Ortiz?”

“I did. I came because I wanted you to know I’m cooperating.”

I took his number but didn’t invite him inside. Mara later confirmed that Ortiz had spoken with him. I was glad he had come forward. I was also furious that he hadn’t questioned how a stranger could appear with documents to sell my home.

Ortiz requested the notary’s camera footage. His office had security cameras near the entrance and the signing desk.

By morning, she had a clear image of the man Owen brought in.

I didn’t recognize him. Curtis did.

Ortiz told me the man was a former employee from Curtis’s shuttered shop. His name was Frank Dyer. The identification he had shown Paul appeared to have been altered.

“He says Curtis asked him to do a favor for a real estate deal,” Ortiz said. “He’s giving us a formal statement.”

I sat down before I answered.

Curtis had not merely agreed to witness a paper. He had found someone to stand in my place.

Mom heard the news from me. She put down the mug she was washing and gripped the edge of the sink.

“He brought that man to our house once,” she said. “Years ago. Frank helped repair the porch.”

Did Curtis expect us never to identify him? Or had he believed the sale would be finished before we could fight it?

I called Mara.

“How do I keep them away from Noah?”

She helped me document Curtis’s visit to the school and request an order barring him from contacting Noah while the property investigation proceeded. The school had already been notified. Mom changed the back-door lock that afternoon.

I didn’t tell Noah his uncle had hired someone to impersonate me. I told him Uncle Curtis had made choices that meant we needed distance for now.

“Is he mad at me?” Noah asked.

“No. This is about what adults did. None of it is yours to fix.”

He stared at the rug. “I liked when he taught me to fix my bike.”

“I know. I liked that too.”

That was the hardest part to say aloud.

Curtis had once spent an entire rainy Saturday teaching Noah how to patch a tire. He could be kind. He had also stood outside Noah’s school and told him he might lose his room.

I couldn’t make those facts fit neatly together for my son.

At midday, Vanessa called from a number I didn’t know. I didn’t answer. She left a message.

“I heard you found out about Frank. Owen said you wouldn’t lose the house. He said it was temporary. Please call me.”

I sent the recording to Ortiz and Mara.

Temporary.

There was no temporary version of signing away my home without my consent.

Later, Emma, the neighbor, texted that Owen had carried boxes out of Vanessa’s apartment that morning. Ortiz was already aware and working to preserve the records.

At dinner, Mom asked whether I wanted her to stay with her sister until things settled.

“Is that what you want?” I asked.

“No. I was asking because I thought it might help you worry less.”

“I’d worry more. But I don’t want you staying because of me either.”

She smiled sadly. “Then we’re both staying because we live here.”

That night, I checked on Noah before bed. He had fallen asleep with the game controller beside him. I moved it to the shelf and pulled up his blanket.

Downstairs, my phone buzzed.

Mara had sent an update. The title company had located another document in the sale file, submitted after its hold began.