He exhaled, relieved.
“We’d like to put safeguards on the account immediately, if that’s all right. Restrict access, add identity verification, and revoke any possible secondary authority.”
“Yes,” I said. “All of it.”
He passed me the forms.
As I signed, my hand remained steady. I noticed that almost with surprise. The letters of my name curved the way they always had, deliberate and even. Not the trembling ghost-version Daniel had tried to counterfeit. Mine.
He hasn’t stolen my money yet, I thought as I signed the last line. But he has already tried to steal something more important.
When I finished, I slid the papers back.
Jason looked at me, perhaps expecting anger, perhaps tears.
Instead, I said, “He hasn’t stolen my money yet. But he already took something far more valuable.”
Jason didn’t ask what that was.
He didn’t need to.
When I got home, I set my purse on the kitchen counter and sat at the table without taking off my shoes.
