Chapter 4 - The Document About Grace Was a Custody Waiver
The second paper initially looked official enough to frighten Luciano.
It carried an old county seal.
Grace Whitmore’s full legal name.
Ellie’s date of birth.
And language apparently surrendering future parental claims.
The signature at the bottom looked like Grace’s.
Luciano had seen her handwriting thousands of times.
At first glance, it was convincing.
Then his attorney examined it.
The notarization date was wrong.
Grace supposedly signed the waiver on March 14.
But the notary whose stamp appeared on the page had not received her commission until May.
Two months later.
The document was fraudulent.
Maybe forged entirely.
Maybe recreated from something else.
Then they noticed a file reference number in the corner.
The attorney searched county archives.
The number belonged to a different document.
A temporary travel authorization Grace had signed years earlier allowing Luciano to take infant Ellie abroad for a family wedding.
Somebody had apparently obtained that genuine signature page—
then used it as source material.
The implications became darker.
Celina had not only forged Luciano’s signature.
Someone had been manufacturing documents using Grace’s too.
But Celina had known Luciano for only three years.
Grace disappeared almost five years ago.
How could Celina possess old signature material from before they even met?
That became the first central mystery.
Either Celina had accessed the Moretti archives after entering the family—
or someone inside the family had been manipulating Grace-related records long before Celina arrived.
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Luciano no longer knew which possibility frightened him more.
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