Chapter 9 - THE ORIGINAL FILE
The message frightened Nora more than she wanted to admit.
Evelyn asked her not to respond. Instead, the attorney requested that Julian's counsel identify the documents he claimed to possess.
The response arrived the next day.
It included a scanned copy of a document purporting to show that Nora had knowingly transferred her interest in the studio property to the foundation. The signature looked similar to hers.
Nora stared at it.
“I've never seen this.”
Evelyn enlarged the page.
“The witness section is incomplete. The notary information is also unusual. We'll need the original.”
The document carried a reference number from a legal office that had closed two years earlier.
Evelyn contacted the regulator and requested confirmation of the notary's status. She also asked the property registry for the original filing packet.
A week later, the packet arrived.
Inside was a digital submission record showing that the document had been uploaded from a computer at Northline's headquarters. The metadata identified a user account assigned to Julian's executive assistant.
That did not prove Julian had personally created it, but it gave investigators a concrete lead.
The assistant, a woman named Claire, contacted Evelyn through her own lawyer. She said she had been instructed to upload a set of documents and had not been told that Nora's signature was disputed.
She provided the original email containing the instructions.
The email came from Julian.
Use the version attached. We need the transfer recorded before the gala announcement.
Nora read the sentence twice.
The investigation moved quickly after that. The police requested the original files and interviewed the people involved. The property registry placed a notation on the title while the dispute was examined. Northline's board announced that it had commissioned an independent review.
Julian did not call again.
May you like
For the first time, his silence did not feel like a threat.
It felt like the pause before consequences.
