Both documents referred to Northstar’s supposed participation.

“Do not go to that ballroom,” Maya said. “Do not say anything that could be interpreted as confirming the deal.”

I repeated that to my parents.

Dad exploded.

“You would let your own father lose everything over paperwork?”

Then Olivia screamed in the background.

Someone had handed her another document.

She photographed it and sent it to me.

At the bottom of the investor packet was a signature page.

My signature.

Convincing enough to fool a stranger.

Wrong enough to make my hands go cold.

And directly beneath it was the name of the witness who claimed to have watched me sign.

My mother.

PART 3

My mother had witnessed a signature I never made.

At that moment, the anniversary stopped being about exclusion.

It became evidence.

Maya immediately instructed the hotel to preserve all ballroom security footage and asked the event coordinator to collect every investor packet.