Chapter 12 - The Notary’s Camera
Dennis Pruitt’s case resolved next.
He was not mastermind.
He was careless enough to make fraud possible.
The remote notarization video showed Mason Reed pretending to be Austin.
Mason had Austin’s old driver license scan.
A similar shirt.
Hair styled.
Poor lighting.
Dennis asked three verification questions.
Mason had answers from Carla.
Birth date.
Last four of SSN.
Company address.
Then signature acknowledgment.
The final PDF later received copied signature.
Dennis notarized without comparing metadata.
Why?
Margaret had been client for fifteen years.
“She said Austin was in a hurry.”
Trust again.
Professional duty replaced by relationship.
Dennis lost commission license and faced legal consequences for false notarization/negligence depending findings.
He settled civil claims.
Cooperated.
Then Mason.
He had received $15,000.
Carla told him Austin “hated paperwork” and wanted a workaround.
He suspected dishonest.
Did it.
He pleaded to impersonation/fraud-related offense and returned money.
No grand villain.
Just people saying yes to small wrongs.
Then transactional lawyer Peter Moss.
Cleared of intentional conspiracy after producing communications showing he repeatedly asked for direct Austin confirmation.
Margaret forged responses.
He still faced professional review for insufficient verification.
Important.
Not everyone in orbit was corrupt.
Then Graham Vale.
Private lender.
He knew Margaret owned Raven Rock.
Of course.
He required disclosure to seller.
Margaret gave him signed conflict waiver from Austin.
Forged.
Vale believed? His compliance team failed to call Austin directly.
He accepted settlement.
Canceled Raven Rock financing.
Sued Margaret under fraud warranties.
He also agreed to return Carla trust escrow funds once ownership was established.
That recovered $2.1 million.
Carla’s trust improved.
Then the safe cash.
Police returned after evidence.
$118,000 emergency currency.
Jewelry.
Gold.
We moved everything to bank vault.
No home safe.
I never wanted to hear hammer on steel again.
Then Austin sold? No.
He repaired bedroom.
I refused to sleep there.
We moved into a rental temporarily.
The house became a place of evidence and memory.
Austin said:
“We can sell.”
“That house was yours before us.”
“It’s a house.”
Good.
We listed months later.
No attachment to monument.
Then my pregnancy advanced.
Twenty weeks.
Ultrasound.
Girl.
We named her privately:
Elena George? Maybe honor? Let's pick Olivia? But family. Maybe "Sophie Elaine Wentworth" after Irene's mother. Sophie Elaine. We won't announce until later.
Austin cried during ultrasound.
Then said:
“I don’t want her growing up thinking Wentworth means she has to manage anyone.”
I smiled.
“Then don’t teach her.”
Simple.
Then Margaret’s trial approaching.
Prosecutors offered plea.
She refused.
She wanted charges dismissed because “family property dispute.”
Video.
Forged docs.
Planned statement.
Vault.
Hard.
Then her lawyer introduced a new defense:
Diminished judgment due prescription sedatives and alcohol.
Medical records showed prescribed sleep medication.
Toxicology? No blood sample that night? She was arrested maybe tested? Could have.
She had alcohol level low.
Medication within prescription range.
No impairment enough.
Defense could argue but not absolve.
Then something else.
Margaret had been seeing a psychiatrist for anxiety after George’s death.
Therapy notes protected.
But she waived limited records to show panic over financial collapse.
The narrative changed:
A frightened widow trying to save family.
I could empathize.
The jury still had to see her hands in my hair.
May you like
Fear explains.
Does not erase.
