Chapter 11 - WHAT SHE WANTED FROM EMMA
For several seconds, I couldn't understand the words.
“Emma's Social Security card?”
Mom nodded.
“Why?”
“I don't know exactly.”
James stepped forward.
“How did she know Sarah had it?”
I answered before Mom could.
“I filled out daycare paperwork last week.”
I'd thrown the documents into the zippered section of my purse afterward.
My stomach dropped.
My purse had been hanging on a chair in my parents' guest room during dinner.
“Did Lauren go upstairs?”
Mom nodded slowly.
“She said she needed the bathroom.”
James's face changed.
He walked straight to the entryway.
My purse hung on a hook.
He brought it to me.
I opened the inner pocket.
Insurance card.
Wallet.
Receipts.
No Social Security card.
“No.”
I dumped everything onto the floor.
“No, no, no.”
James crouched beside me.
“Sarah.”
“It's gone.”
Mom covered her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
I stood so quickly I nearly fell.
“She stole my baby's identity?”
“We don't know that yet,” James said.
But his eyes said he was thinking the same thing.
He called Mark.
Then the credit bureaus.
Then a fraud hotline.
Within an hour, a freeze was placed on Emma's credit file.
The absurdity made me sick.
She was six months old.
She couldn't sit up without support for more than thirty seconds.
And somehow she already needed fraud protection from her aunt.
Derek called just before four.
His voice sounded exhausted.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Lauren left her laptop.”
James put him on speaker.
Derek continued.
“I know her password.”
“What did you find?”
“A folder called Expansion.”
James and I looked at each other.
“What kind of expansion?”
“North Star.”
I gripped the phone.
“Open it.”
“I did.”
Derek exhaled.
“There are applications. Loan forms. Credit reports.”
“Whose?”
“Several people.”
My stomach twisted.
“Family?”
“Some.”
He started reading names.
My cousin Melissa.
Uncle Robert.
My father.
A former employee of the boutique.
Two names I didn't recognize.
Then Derek stopped.
“What?”
“There's one for Emma.”
James's face went blank.
“What does it say?”
“Application for a custodial investment account.”
I frowned.
“That doesn't sound like a loan.”
“It isn't.”
Derek clicked through files.
“Wait.”
We heard his breathing change.
“Oh, God.”
“What?”
“There are life insurance documents.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“For who?”
“Emma.”
The room went silent.
I couldn't breathe.
James stood.
“Who is listed as beneficiary?”
Keyboard clicking.
Then Derek whispered, “North Star Capital Holdings.”
My knees buckled.
James caught me.
“That can't be legal,” I whispered.
Mark's voice came through James's other phone.
“It wouldn't be without parental consent.”
James asked, “Is there a signature?”
Derek looked.
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
“Sarah's.”
I started crying.
Not from sadness.
From rage.
“She forged my signature again.”
Derek kept looking.
“There's another signature.”
James's eyes narrowed.
“Mine?”
“No.”
Derek went quiet.
“Whose?”
“Diane Walker.”
My mother made a strangled sound.
I turned toward her.
She looked horrified.
“I never signed that.”
Derek said, “It's notarized.”
Mom sank onto the couch.
“I didn't sign it.”
James's attorney spoke.
“Then someone forged Diane too.”
Mom looked at me.
For the first time that night, the fear on her face wasn't fear of consequences.
It was fear of Lauren.
“I think I know where she keeps the originals,” Mom whispered.
“Where?”
“At the boutique.”
James grabbed his coat.
But Mom shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“She has another office.”
“Where?”
Mom looked toward the window.
“The basement under the store.”
Then she said something that changed everything.
May you like
“She never lets anyone go down there.”
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