Callum exhaled.
“Rental income.”
I set down my pen.
“What?”
“The plan was to rent Galena seasonally.”
“North Star would hold it.”
“I would manage the entity.”
“And receive part of the rental income for three years.”
“How much?”
“Twenty percent.”
I stared through the condo windows.
“And Delia?”
“She set up the company.”
“She had done something similar for family property before.”
“Did she prepare the transfer?”
“She prepared the structure.”
“Mercer handled the deed.”
“Who signed my name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Callum.”
“I genuinely don’t.”
“He told me the signature was taken care of.”
“And you chose not to know more.”
“Yes.”
His voice broke slightly.
“I told him it was a mistake.”
I almost smiled.
“You told him it was a mistake and accepted twenty percent anyway.”
“I know.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then:
“Vivian.”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not the person you need to convince right now.”
“My attorney will contact you.”
He swallowed.
“I understand.”
“Get your own lawyer.”
Then I ended the call.
I did not call Delia.
Priscilla handled that.
She sent preservation notices.
Requested corporate records.
Requested every version of the deed.
The acknowledgment page.
Email transmission history.
Entity formation papers.
Rental-planning emails.
Nothing dramatic.
Legal work is mostly organized patience.
Then came the signature examiner.
A woman named Carol Reyes compared the deed signature to twenty authenticated examples.
Her report arrived in a sealed PDF.
CONCLUSION:
The questioned signature is inconsistent with the known signatures of Vivian Mercer in multiple identifying characteristics and cannot be attributed to her with reasonable document certainty.
That was evidence object number two.
The next was more damaging.
The signing acknowledgment listed a notary whose journal showed no appointment involving me that day.
The notary had notarized Mercer’s signature separately.
My supposed acknowledgment had been attached later through a remote document package that did not include the required identity confirmation record.
No magical trick.
No sophisticated scheme.
Just enough administrative shortcuts stacked together that everyone involved had apparently expected no one to look too closely.
They forgot what I did for a living.
Priscilla called me.
“Mercer’s attorney wants to discuss resolution.”
“Already?”
“The paper is bad for him.”
“That is a technical legal term?”
“Yes.”
“Very prestigious.”
We scheduled mediation.
Mercer arrived with his attorney.
Callum attended separately with counsel because his interests were no longer identical to his brother’s.
Delia did not attend.
Her lawyer submitted corporate documents beforehand.