It didn't resolve the legal dispute.
But it mattered.
Mariam placed the documents on the table.
The first was the original bilingual agreement.
The second was the revised English summary.
The third was a purported written consent authorizing the relevant transfer.
Amara looked at the third document.
For a moment, she felt her pulse accelerate.
The paper contained the Harbor Nine Community Trust's name.
Below it was a paragraph stating that the trust had approved the proposed transaction and waived certain objections concerning change of control.
At the bottom appeared a signature.
Amara stared.
It was hers.
Or something that looked like hers.
She leaned forward.
"Where did you get this?"
Mariam answered.
"Meridian provided it as part of the due-diligence file."
Amara studied the signature.
The shape of the letters was familiar.
The long downward stroke on the first letter.
The small loop near the end.
And the way the final line rose slightly.
But she hadn't signed the document.
She knew that immediately.
Evelyn noticed her expression.
"Amara?"
She looked up.
"That's not my signature on an approval I gave."
The room became silent.
Mariam leaned forward.
"Are you saying the document is inauthentic?"
Amara took a slow breath.
"I'm saying I never signed a consent authorizing this transaction."
Faisal's expression hardened.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then he turned toward Mariam.
"Preserve every version of this document."
She nodded.
Evelyn asked for a copy and the complete supporting record, including the process used to obtain the supposed authorization.
Mariam agreed to arrange production through appropriate channels.
Amara looked toward the signature again.
She felt a cold sensation spreading through her stomach.
Someone hadn't merely erased her mother's organization from a summary.
Someone appeared to have used her own identity to claim the organization had agreed to surrender rights.
The supposed consent was dated four months earlier.
Amara remembered the week clearly.
Daniel had been hospitalized after a medical complication, and she spent several days beside him while trying to negotiate payment arrangements with his care providers.
She hadn't attended any Harbor Nine trust meeting during that period.
She hadn't approved a major transaction.
And she certainly hadn't signed a waiver allowing the company to proceed without the trust's involvement.
Evelyn examined the document.
It referred to a trustees' meeting allegedly held on a Tuesday afternoon.
The minutes were attached.
They listed five trustees as present.
A majority supposedly approved the consent.
Amara stared at the names.
One trustee had retired the previous year.