Chapter 5
Priya showed me the signature the next morning.
It looked like mine if you glanced quickly. The first letter was too wide. The last stroke rose when mine always curved down.
“I didn’t sign that,” I said.
“I believe you. Do you remember where you were on this date?”
I checked my calendar.
“At my aunt’s in Raleigh. Tasha drove with me.”
Tasha leaned forward. “We stayed two nights. I have pictures and the hotel receipt.”
Priya wrote that down.
The loan hadn’t been funded. A review had raised a question about my signature, and the lender had asked to meet both owners before proceeding.
Marcus had told them I was traveling.
“He was still trying,” I said.
“Yes. We’ll send a formal notice that you dispute the signature. I also recommend reporting it.”
I nodded, though my whole body felt heavy.
I had spent the night wondering whether some part of this could be repaired. Looking at my name written by someone else ended that thought.
On the way home, Marcus called.
I let it go to voicemail.
Then he sent a message.
Please don’t turn one bad decision into a criminal case. We can pay it all back.
One bad decision.
I called Priya and forwarded it.
At noon, Serena asked to meet me at a café. I nearly said no. Then I remembered she had given me the messages that brought us this far.
She was already seated when I arrived. There were two cups of tea on the table.
“I didn’t know what you liked,” she said. “I guessed.”
It was the same tea Marcus used to bring me when I was sick.
For a moment, that small thing made it hard to breathe.
Serena noticed. “I can get another.”
“No. It’s fine.”
She reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope.
“Marcus left this at my apartment last week. He said it was for our move. I opened it this morning.”
Inside were printed estimates from Oakline Property Group and a list of payments due to Caleb’s company.
One line read: Remaining balance after sale proceeds.
My eyes moved down the page. The total was larger than I expected.
“Did he say what this meant?”
“He said it was a property investment. He told me once the house sold, he’d be free of his old life.”
I kept my fingers flat on the table.
“Did he ask you for money?”
Serena looked ashamed. “Five thousand dollars. I gave it to him in June. He said he’d repay me after a deal closed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I should have asked more questions.”
“So should I.”
We sat quietly for a moment. Around us, people talked over lunch and moved on with their ordinary days.
“I told my sister,” Serena said. “She asked why I went to your house instead of just leaving him.”
“Why did you?”
“My father lied to my mother for years. Everyone said they didn’t want to get involved. I watched her find out piece by piece. I couldn’t do that to someone else.”
I looked at her. She was younger than me, but there was a steadiness in her I hadn’t seen through the shock on my porch.
“Thank you for coming,” I said.
She wiped at her eyes. “I didn’t know if you’d ever say that.”
I gave Priya the envelope that afternoon.
An hour later, Caleb appeared outside my office.
I saw him through the glass front doors. He paced beside my car, phone in hand. I called building security before I went down.
He lifted both hands when he saw the guard with me.
“I only want to talk.”
“Then call my lawyer.”
“Marcus has made this worse than it needs to be. If you sign the loan, he can settle the business debt. After that, you two can work out the marriage.”
“The marriage is already worked out.”
Caleb gave me an impatient look.
“You don’t understand how many people are depending on that business.”
“I understand my name is on a loan application I never signed.”
He looked toward the guard.
“I didn’t know about that,” he said.
I couldn’t tell whether he meant it.
“Then you should speak to the lender,” I said.
I went back upstairs without giving him another chance.
That evening, I changed the password to my personal email, opened an account in my name, and moved my next paycheck there. Priya helped me understand what I could do while the joint funds were being reviewed.
Tasha brought dinner. We ate at the kitchen counter because the table was covered in documents.
At nine, the doorbell rang.
I looked through the peephole.
Marcus stood outside, empty-handed.
“I know you’re there,” he said. “Please. Five minutes.”
I called Priya, but it went to voicemail. Tasha came to stand beside me.
Marcus’s voice broke through the door.
“Caleb told me he went to your office. I didn’t ask him to do that. Nia, there’s something about the money I haven’t told you.”
I opened the door as far as the chain allowed.
“Then tell me.”
May you like
Marcus looked over his shoulder at the street.
“My mother gave me money too,” he said. “And Caleb knows where she got it.”
