Walter allowed himself a small hope.
He was careful not to confuse a promising negotiation with a completed one.
He had already learned how much damage a document could cause when people described it as finished before anyone had actually agreed.
A week before the settlement meetings, Reuben Cole requested another interview with Allison Watkins.
The investigators had obtained the digital image files used to assemble the acknowledgment pages.
One image contained a faint shadow beyond the circular seal, suggesting that the stamp had been copied from an older document rather than freshly applied.
The image metadata alone could not establish who made the copy.
Allison remembered the evening her mother asked her to straighten scans and remove empty margins.
She recalled a file named archive sample, but she did not know whether it was later used on a recorded deed.
The investigators compared that recollection with emails, file versions, and the document preparer’s intake record.
They also spoke with Helen Wexler’s daughter about old papers the retired notary had left with a former colleague.
Walter learned only the general outline after the information became part of a public proceeding.
He was careful not to ask Allison for private details.
He remembered her standing on his porch, frightened of the truth she might discover about her mother.
One afternoon Allison returned to thank him for not pressuring her to choose a side in public.
Walter invited her to sit on Lorraine’s unfinished bench frame, then realized it was not strong enough.
They laughed awkwardly and stood beside the porch rail instead.
Allison said she had spent years believing that every conflict involving Brenda was caused by someone else’s ingratitude.
The evidence had forced her to separate love from agreement.
Walter told her that families could remain connected without pretending harmful decisions were harmless.
She asked whether he was angry at her for scanning the pages.
He said he was angry about what the records appeared to have enabled, but he could not know what she understood at the time.
He had no reason to accuse her of intending a fraud.
Allison seemed relieved and then immediately sad.
“I wish my mother had stopped when someone first challenged her,” she said.
Walter looked at the marigolds.
“So do I.”
Before leaving, Allison explained that Brenda had recently refused to speak with her.
Walter did not offer to carry messages between them.
He knew becoming a private mediator would confuse the boundaries he had worked hard to preserve.
