She moved the coffee away from the computer.

The page also referred to authority under a power of attorney.

I went into the folder and found the old authorization I had kept after giving my father limited help with property matters years earlier.

Its corners had softened.

Its expiration clause had not.

It ended on June 14, four years before this sale.

I put it beside the laptop.

For a moment, I wanted to believe there was another document somewhere, something I had forgotten signing.