PART 9 — The Agreement With My Company’s Name Inside
Maya read Alan’s agreement from beginning to end. The clause concerning Bell Weather did not transfer anything. It did, however, show that Derek had offered my company as a possible Northbridge asset. He signed in November, when he first asked Peter about valuing it. The dates matched too neatly to dismiss.
I asked for a meeting with Derek, Judith, Alan, and their attorneys. Maya suggested separate meetings would be easier to manage. I wanted each of them to hear the same questions and give answers in front of the others. After calls among the lawyers, they agreed to meet in Maya’s conference room on Thursday.
I spent the day before that meeting at work. Nina had arranged password changes, account alerts, and a new policy requiring my written approval for any outside request about company assets. We also told the crew enough to stop rumors. I said a personal financial matter had led to unauthorized questions about Bell Weather; their jobs and current projects were secure.
Celia stayed after everyone left. We walked through the warehouse, checking labels on pieces due for delivery. At the back stood a pair of doors Dad had helped me restore. Their customer wanted them installed before Thanksgiving. I ran my hand over a repaired edge, grateful for a problem whose solution I could see and touch.
At the meeting, Derek sat beside his attorney. Judith occupied the next chair, her folder aligned with the table’s edge. Alan wore a navy jacket and looked more annoyed than worried. Their lawyers made introductions. Maya placed the agreement where everyone could see it and asked Alan what the Bell Weather clause meant.
Alan said Northbridge liked to invest in established local businesses. He believed Derek and I were considering a sale. “Who told you that?” I asked. He turned to Derek. “He did.” Derek admitted he had discussed a possible sale as a way to interest Northbridge. He said he never represented it as a signed deal.
Maya pointed to the phrase committed acquisition target. Derek said Alan had written it. Alan shook his head. The agreement was drafted by Northbridge, he said, from details Derek supplied. Their attorneys interrupted before the argument grew. I watched Judith. She remained still, looking at the clause she said she had never seen.
Then Maya asked about the forged authorization. Derek repeated that it was a discarded draft. Judith said she had assembled the document at Derek’s request but had believed he would show it to me before anyone used it. Derek turned toward her. “You’re the one who said Clara would sign once we showed her the numbers.”
Judith’s face reddened. “Because you told me she wanted to help.” Both statements might have been true at different times. Neither explained copying my signature. I asked Judith why she had used an insurance form instead of leaving the line blank. She looked at her attorney, then said she wanted the draft to appear complete for a private conversation.
“A conversation with whom?” Maya asked. Judith said she had shown it to Alan. Alan said he had only seen the company asset sheet. His attorney requested a pause. They stepped into the hall, leaving Derek across from me. He began to say something, then stopped when his own lawyer touched his arm.
When everyone returned, Alan produced an email from Judith. She had sent him the forged authorization in April and written that Derek expected to have Bell Weather’s backing once family matters were settled. That was before Dad confronted them. Judith read the email on Alan’s phone and said she had misunderstood Derek’s assurances.
Dad had found the document soon after. He had asked them to tell me; they had not. After he died, they moved from an unsigned authorization to a transfer agreement placed beside my pen at two in the morning. I felt the shape of that progression more clearly than I had while sorting separate pages.
Maya asked whether any copy had been submitted to a lender. Alan said he did not know. Derek said no. Judith’s attorney could not answer for her without reviewing her emails. Maya requested that everyone preserve their records. The meeting ended without agreement about their intentions, but the documents had narrowed what each person could deny.
In the hallway, Derek caught up with me while our attorneys were still gathering files. “I know how this looks,” he said. I told him I knew what I had signed, and what I had not. He asked if there was any way to repair our marriage. I could not give an answer with Judith and Alan standing a few feet away.
That evening, I went back to the house with Daniel. I had come for the rest of my clothes and personal documents. Derek let us in. Our photographs remained on the mantel, and a grocery list in my handwriting still clung to the refrigerator. I packed slowly, finding ordinary things I had expected to use again.
In the office, I noticed the safe was gone. Derek said he had moved it to the garage because it blocked a drawer. Daniel went with me to check. The safe stood near a workbench, its door closed but unlocked. Inside were only the empty drawers. I still had Dad’s papers, but I wanted the safe kept with the estate records.
Derek helped us load it into Daniel’s car. He ran a hand over the scratch on its side and said Dad had never trusted him with money. I remembered the unanswered requests in the storage unit. “He offered to look at your numbers,” I said. Derek nodded. “I couldn’t bear to show him.”
On the way back, Daniel’s phone rang. Maya had received a response from Northbridge’s records custodian. The firm’s files contained a copy of Judith’s forged authorization, attached to an inquiry Derek submitted in May. A reviewer had flagged the form as insufficient and asked for a signed original. None was provided.
The form had crossed a line Derek and Judith spent the meeting insisting they had avoided. No loan had been issued against Bell Weather, but they had sent someone a document carrying my copied signature. Daniel pulled over so Maya could explain the record clearly. I looked out at the traffic until she finished.
END PART 9
