Chapter 9: The Woman Behind the Signature
Amina placed the phone on the desk.
Yvette stood motionless.
Neither woman spoke for several seconds.
Then Amina asked the question that had been burning inside her.
“Who owns the overseas company?””
Yvette looked at the floor.
“Amina, this is more complicated than you think.””
“Then make it simple.””
“It's a holding company.””
“Whose holding company?””
Yvette pressed her lips together.
Amina picked up the certificate.
“I'm going to ask you once more.””
Yvette finally looked at her.
“It's Sloane's.””
The room seemed to shrink.
Amina stared at her stepmother.
“You transferred the bakery's assets into a company owned by Sloane?””
“It was a tax and investment structure.””
“You used my father's property as collateral.””
“I was trying to build something bigger.””
“You used my designs.””
“Your designs were developed while working for the bakery.””
Amina shook her head.
“You keep saying that as though it makes stealing acceptable.””
Yvette's voice rose.
“You have no idea how much pressure I was under!””
“Then tell me.””
For a moment, Yvette looked ready to explode.
Instead, she sank into the chair behind the desk.
She removed her glasses and rubbed her forehead.
“Your father never trusted me with the business.””
Amina remained standing.
“He trusted you enough to marry you.””
“That isn't the same thing.””
Yvette gave a bitter laugh.
“When I married Thomas, I believed we would build something together. I had business experience. I knew how to market a company. I knew how to negotiate with suppliers and attract investors.””
“And my father knew how to bake.””
“He knew how to make beautiful cakes. But he couldn't understand growth.””
Amina looked at the certificate.
“So you decided to take control.””
“I decided to protect the future.””
“By taking my name off my work?””
Yvette looked up.
“Sloane needed a career. She had spent years trying to establish herself.””
“So you gave her mine?””
“Don't simplify it.””
“That's exactly what happened.””
Yvette stood again.
“You were always content to stay in the kitchen. Sloane wanted more.””
Amina's eyes narrowed.
“I wanted more too. I wanted to compete. I wanted to create my own bakery designs. I wanted customers to know my name.””
“Then why didn't you say so?””
“I did. You told me I was ungrateful.””
Yvette looked away.
Amina took a breath.
“Did Sloane know about the company?””
Yvette hesitated.
“Yes.””
“Did she know the bakery was being used as collateral?””
“She knew there were investments.””
“Did she know my designs were listed?””
Yvette didn't answer.
Amina felt a deep sadness settle over her.
She had expected anger.
She had expected denial.
But the silence was worse.
Because it meant her stepsister hadn't simply accepted a few compliments.
She had participated in a plan that could destroy the business her father had spent his life building.
Amina picked up the certificate and placed it inside her bag.
“I'm taking copies of everything to the estate attorney.””
Yvette stood abruptly.
“You can't.””
“Watch me.””
“If the lender discovers the ownership dispute, the bakery could be frozen.””
“Then perhaps you shouldn't have used it as collateral.””
“You'll destroy the livelihoods of everyone working there.””
Amina stopped.
That was the one thing Yvette knew how to use against her.
The employees.
The bakers.
The delivery drivers.
The young woman who cleaned the kitchen every morning.
Amina looked around the office.
“I don't want anyone to lose their job.””
“Then give me the documents.””
“No.””
Yvette stepped closer.
“Think about what you're doing.””
“I am.””
Amina opened the door.
“And for the first time, I'm thinking about what you did.””
She walked into the bakery.
Before leaving, she stopped at the old preparation counter.
A photograph of her father stood on a small shelf.
He was wearing his white chef's jacket, smiling beside a birthday cake.
Amina picked it up.
“I found it, Dad,” she whispered.
Then she left.
The following morning, she met Daniel and the estate attorney, Ms. Patricia Moore, in a small conference room.
Patricia was in her early fifties, with short dark hair and a habit of reading every document twice before speaking.
She examined the will, the certificate, the loan agreement, and the handwritten letter.
Then she removed her glasses.
“This is serious.””
Amina sat forward.
“Can they take the bakery?””
“Not automatically. We need to establish which assets were legally transferred, which agreements were authorized, and whether the lender relied on inaccurate representations.””
Daniel placed the old financial statements on the table.
“I have records showing that the company was operating under temporary administration.””
Patricia nodded.
“That helps.””
Amina handed her the photograph of Sloane beside the lawyer.
Patricia examined it.
“Do you know who this attorney is?””
“Not yet.””
Daniel leaned closer.
“I do.””
He pointed to the man standing beside Sloane.
“Richard Vale. He handled the original financing paperwork.””
Patricia's expression changed.
“Richard Vale?””
“You know him?”” Amina asked.
“He was involved in a previous dispute concerning unauthorized transfers of family businesses.””
Patricia returned to the documents.
“This needs to be handled carefully. I want an independent forensic accountant to review the company's records.””
Amina nodded.
“What about my designs?””
Patricia lifted the ownership certificate.
“This is important. If authentic, it supports your claim that the designs were your original intellectual property.””
“Can we prove Sloane copied them?””
“We already have several useful pieces of evidence. The original sketches, the dates, the written notes, the competition entry, and the flower with your identification strip.””
Patricia paused.
“But I need one more thing.””
“What?””
“The original blue recipe book.””
Amina reached into her bag.
“I found the storage key. But the book is missing.””
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“Yvette may have removed it.””
Patricia nodded.
“Then we need to locate it.””
Amina remembered something.
“The photograph showed Sloane beside my father before he married Yvette. She was already wearing the bracelet.””
Patricia studied the picture.
“That's interesting.””
“Why?””
“Because it suggests there may have been a business relationship before the marriage.””
Daniel leaned back.
“Thomas never mentioned that.””
Amina looked at the photograph.
“Could Sloane have been working with Yvette before they joined the family?””
“Possibly.””
Patricia wrote something in her notebook.
“I'll investigate the company records.””
Amina looked at the certificate.
“There's something else. My father wrote that the original registration records were stored separately.””
“Where?””
“I don't know.””
Patricia tapped her pen against the table.
“Think carefully. Did your father ever mention a second storage location?””
Amina closed her eyes.
Then she remembered.
When she was seventeen, her father had taken her to a small commercial storage unit outside town.
He had kept old cake stands, unused equipment, and several boxes of photographs there.
He called it his little museum.
Amina opened her eyes.
“Storage unit seventeen.””
Daniel looked up.
“That's it.””
“What?””
“Your father had a storage unit under the bakery's original business account. He paid for it privately.””
Patricia immediately wrote down the address.
“We'll arrange access through the estate.””
Amina nodded.
For the first time, there was a clear path forward.
But before the meeting ended, her phone rang.
Sloane.
Amina almost declined.
Then she answered.
“What?””
Sloane's voice was trembling.
“I need to see you.””
“Why?””
“It's about the bakery.””
“Tell me now.””
“I can't. Mother doesn't know I'm calling.””
Amina looked toward Patricia.
“What happened?””
Sloane lowered her voice.
“She found out about the investigation.””
“So?””
“She moved the money.””
Amina sat upright.
“What money?””
“The investment account. The one connected to Whitmore Culinary Holdings.””
“Where did she move it?””
“I don't know. But she took the original recipe book with her.””
Amina closed her eyes.
“Why are you telling me this?””
There was a long pause.
Then Sloane said something Amina hadn't expected.
“Because I didn't create the blue cake.””
“I know.””
“No. You don't understand. Mother made me submit it.””
Amina stared at the phone.
“Your mother?””
“She told me the designs were hers to use. She said everything belonged to the company.””
Amina's voice became cold.
“You still accepted the award.””
“I know.””
“You still told people you made the flowers.””
“I know.””
“You watched me clean the kitchen while you took photographs.””
Sloane began to cry.
“I know, Amina.””
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Sloane whispered:
“There's something else. The blue recipe book isn't the only thing Mother took from storage unit seventeen.””
Amina gripped the phone.
“What else was there?””
“A recording.””
“What recording?””
“Your father made it before he died. Mother has been trying to destroy it for years.””
Amina looked at Patricia.
The attorney had stopped writing.
Sloane continued.
“It's a recording of Mother and Richard Vale discussing the original ownership documents. They thought nobody would ever hear it.””
Amina felt her heartbeat quicken.
“Where is it?””
“I don't know. But Mother said something last night.””
“What?””
Sloane's voice broke.
“She said if that recording ever reaches the attorney, she'll make sure neither of us gets a single dollar.””
Amina stood.
“Where is your mother now?””
“At the bakery.””
“Stay there. Don't touch anything.””
“Amina, wait.””
“What?””
Sloane took a shaky breath.
“There's one more person in that recording.””
Amina froze.
“Who?””
Sloane whispered the name.
And the name she heard was the last one she had expected.
Her own.
*Amina Rahman.*
Patricia slowly stood from her chair.
Daniel's face went pale.
May you like
Because if Amina's name was in the recording, it meant her father had known something about her involvement in the bakery dispute that she had never been told.
And the truth might change everything they thought they knew.
