Chapter 12 - Monday's Closing.
Monday was three days away.
That gave Emily seventy-two hours to stop a closing she had never agreed to attend.
Dana immediately requested copies of the new loan package from Michael's attorney.
Samuel Reed promised to produce everything Michael had received.
By midnight, Dana had the documents.
The replacement lender was Halcyon Private Credit, a small fund based in Delaware.
The proposed loan was $525,000.
The guarantor page carried Emily's name.
Her signature line was blank.
"At least they haven't signed for you yet," Dana said.
Emily stared at the screen.
"Yet."
The closing checklist contained a line that made her stomach tighten.
Borrower to provide wet-signed guaranty at closing.
Someone expected a physical signature.
Emily called Lauren.
No answer.
She texted one question.
Who is supposed to sign my name Monday?
Lauren replied five minutes later.
I don't know.
Emily sent back two words.
Try again.
Lauren called.
"Pike said the guaranty would be handled."
"By whom?"
"He never said."
"And that didn't bother you?"
"Everything bothers me now."
Emily almost hung up.
Then Lauren said something important.
"Pike has a woman who does closings for him."
"Vanessa Cole?"
"No."
"Who?"
"Marissa Kent."
Dana searched the name.
Marissa Kent was a freelance transaction coordinator and former paralegal.
She was not a notary.
She was not an attorney.
But she had been copied on nearly every Cedar Ridge email.
Emily searched Michael's recovered messages.
Marissa's number appeared under a different name.
MK Closing.
One exchange from two weeks earlier stood out.
Marissa: Need E signature sample for lender file.
Michael: Why?
Marissa: Pike said formatting.
Michael: Ask Lauren.
Emily stared at the screen.
"He gave them a path to my signature again."
Dana asked Michael to explain.
He claimed he assumed Marissa needed a specimen for document formatting.
Emily did not know whether that was stupidity or another lie.
At two in the morning, Rachel called.
She had traced the black SUV from Emily's security video through neighborhood cameras provided voluntarily by two nearby homeowners.
The vehicle was registered to a rental agency.
The rental had been booked by Marissa Kent.
Emily sat up straight.
"Not Pike."
"Maybe Pike was in the car," Rachel said.
"But Kent rented it."
The square ring Emily thought belonged to Darren Pike suddenly became less certain.
Rachel enlarged another image from a convenience-store camera.
The hooded person's face was visible for half a second.
It was not Pike.
It was a woman.
Marissa Kent.
Emily felt a strange chill.
"She came into my house."
"Looks that way."
"How?"
Rachel asked whether Michael had ever shared an alarm code with contractors or assistants.
Emily checked the security panel history.
A secondary user code had been activated months earlier.
Label: M.C. TEMP.
Michael admitted he had created it during a kitchen repair and never deleted it.
Marissa could have obtained it from his phone or messages.
The missing HOUSE folder now had a likely thief.
Dana prepared a formal demand for return of the documents and preservation of all evidence.
She also contacted local police to document the unauthorized entry.
Emily hated having strangers in her kitchen discussing door logs and camera footage, but she hated the idea of silence more.
By Saturday afternoon, the story had become bigger than her marriage.
It involved bank fraud concerns, a disputed deed, unauthorized computer access, possible identity misuse, and a pending commercial closing.
Michael called Emily from his hotel.
"Pike wants to meet tonight."
"Don't go."
"He says he'll unwind everything if I withdraw the bank complaint."
"You can't withdraw my complaint."
"I know."
"Then what does he really want?"
Michael sounded exhausted.
"The flash drive."
Emily looked at Dana.
They were on speaker.
Dana wrote something on a legal pad and turned it toward Emily.
Let him think Michael still has it.
Emily understood.
"Tell Pike you'll meet."
Michael hesitated.
"You just said not to go."
"Plans change."
Dana leaned toward the phone.
"Mr. Carter, you will not meet him alone, and you will not promise anything beyond a conversation."
Samuel Reed agreed to attend nearby.
Rachel arranged a discreet recording setup that complied with Massachusetts law by making sure all participants were informed the meeting would be documented for settlement purposes.
At seven thirty, Michael met Pike in a private room at a downtown restaurant.
Emily listened remotely with Dana from a conference office upstairs.
Pike sounded calm.
"You're making this harder than it needs to be."
Michael replied, "Emily knows about the deed."
"Then fix your wife."
Emily felt her entire body go rigid.
Michael's voice sharpened.
"Don't talk about her like that."
Pike laughed softly.
"Now you grow a spine?"
Dana wrote another note.
Keep him talking.
Michael said, "You told me the house transfer was temporary."
"It is."
"You told Lauren it would take away Emily's leverage."
A pause.
"Lauren talks too much."
Emily looked at Dana.
Then Pike said the sentence they had needed.
"Monday closes, the new loan funds, and after that Emily can complain to whoever she wants."
Michael asked, "How do you close without her signature?"
Another pause.
Pike answered quietly.
May you like
"You let me worry about signatures."
THE THURSDAY CALL
