Chapter 19 - The Woman With the Stamp
Denise Carter did not want to meet.
Then Alicia mentioned subpoenas.
She changed her mind.
They met in Alicia’s office.
Denise was fifty-four, neatly dressed, hands folded tightly around a purse she never opened.
“I did not forge a deed.”
Nobody had accused her yet.
Alicia noticed.
“So tell us what you did.”
Denise stared at the table.
“I worked for Curtis three mornings a week.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago until he shut the office.”
“What was your role?”
“Scheduling. Printing. Scanning.”
“Did you have access to his notary stamp?”
“No.”
“His electronic files?”
“Yes.”
Alicia placed the disputed deed on the table.
Denise’s face changed.
“You’ve seen this before,” Tasha said.
Denise looked at her.
“I saw a version.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Who showed you?”
Denise swallowed.
“Lorraine.”
Tasha’s fingers tightened.
Alicia remained calm.
“What did she ask?”
“She said her mother had signed a property deed but the notary section had been missed.”
“That is not how notarization works,” Alicia said.
“I know that now.”
“Did you know then?”
“I knew enough to feel uncomfortable.”
“What did you do?”
Denise looked close to tears.
“I told her Curtis wouldn’t stamp something after the fact.”
“And?”
“She asked whether I could make the bottom look like another deed he had notarized.”
Tasha stared.
“What did you say?”
“No.”
“Did you do it?”
Denise covered her face.
“Not exactly.”
Marcus sat beside Tasha.
He had insisted on attending this meeting.
Tasha had allowed it.
“What does not exactly mean?” Marcus asked.
Denise looked at Alicia.
The lawyer said, “Answer only if you choose.”
Denise exhaled.
“I opened an old scanned deed.”
“Curtis’s?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I cropped the notarial block.”
Tasha’s stomach turned.
“You copied his stamp.”
“I copied the whole block.”
“Onto my grandmother’s deed.”
“I was told your grandmother had signed the document.”
“Did you see her signature?”
“Yes.”
“Was it already there?”
“Yes.”
“Who gave you the file?”
“Lorraine.”
Tasha closed her eyes.
Alicia asked, “Did you insert the notarial block?”
Denise whispered, “Yes.”
“Did you know it would be recorded?”
“She said it was only so the family could see what a completed version should look like.”
Marcus muttered, “Come on.”
Denise flinched.
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds like you copied a dead woman’s property document using a notary stamp that wasn’t authorized.”
“Curtis wasn’t dead then.”
Marcus leaned back.
“Great correction.”
Alicia gave him a look.
He stopped.
“Did you ever tell Curtis?” Alicia asked.
“No.”
“Did Lorraine pay you?”
Denise stared at the table.
“How much?”
“Five hundred.”
Tasha laughed in disbelief.
Five hundred dollars.
A house.
Her grandmother’s legacy.
Seven years of rent.
Ninety-two thousand dollars borrowed.
All pivoting partly on a five-hundred-dollar favor.
Alicia asked about the later loan documents.
Denise admitted preparing the tenant acknowledgment.
“Did Tasha sign it?”
“No.”
“Did Marcus?”
“No.”
“Who created their signatures?”
Denise’s eyes filled.
“Lorraine emailed samples.”
Marcus went rigid.
Tasha felt oddly calm.
Too calm.
“Why?” she asked.
Denise looked directly at her.
“Because your mother said the lender was making paperwork harder than it needed to be.”
“Why did you keep helping?”
“Because Samuel was my boss.”
“Did he know?”
“Not everything.”
“Did you?”
Denise cried quietly now.
“I knew enough to stop.”
Tasha’s anger cracked.
Not into forgiveness.
Into recognition.
Denise had done what so many people around Lorraine had done.
Allowed small compromises because saying no felt harder in the moment.
Alicia asked, “Do you still have any original files?”
Denise hesitated.
“Yes.”
Everyone went still.
“What?”
“I kept an old backup drive.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel was investigated by the licensing board. I saved work emails in case anyone blamed me for his files.”
“Does it include communications with Lorraine?”
“Yes.”
Alicia leaned forward.
“Will you preserve it and provide it through counsel?”
Denise nodded.
Tasha stared at her.
“Is there anything else on it?”
Denise wiped her face.
“One email.”
“What does it say?”
“I don’t remember exactly.”
“Try.”
Denise looked frightened.
“Lorraine sent the deed draft.”
“And?”
“She wrote that the signature was ‘close enough.’”
Tasha stopped breathing.
Denise continued.
“She said nobody would challenge it because you trusted her.”
The room went completely silent.
Marcus looked at Tasha.
Alicia stopped writing.
Denise whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Tasha did not answer.
There are apologies that arrive before harm.
There are apologies that arrive after.
They are not worth the same thing.
But they are not worth nothing.
Tasha stood.
“I need air.”
Outside Alicia’s office, Marcus followed.
Tasha stared through the hallway window.
Cars moved below.
Ordinary people going ordinary places.
“How stupid was I?”
Marcus frowned.
“No.”
“She literally wrote nobody would challenge it because I trusted her.”
“That makes her calculated.”
“It makes me easy.”
“No.”
Tasha turned.
“You don’t have to rescue my feelings.”
“I’m not.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Telling you that trust is not stupidity.”
Her eyes filled.
Marcus continued.
“Somebody abusing your trust doesn’t mean you were wrong to have it.”
Tasha looked at him.
Then laughed weakly.
“When did you become emotionally literate?”
“Expensive week.”
She almost smiled.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Jayden.
A photograph.
Three backpacks on the coffee table.
Underneath, Jayden had written:
Maya says hers is better than mine. Please settle this before court becomes involved.
Tasha laughed.
Really laughed.
For the first time in days.
Then Alicia opened the office door.
“The backup drive exists.”
Tasha turned.
“And?”
Alicia’s expression was serious.
“If it contains what Denise described, Lorraine’s case just became much harder.”
Tasha’s smile disappeared.
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