Paper.

They had done it all with paper, and they thought that made it done.

That was the assumption at the root of their whole scheme, and it was the assumption I would use to destroy them: the belief that a signature on a document is the same as consent, that a transfer recorded is a transfer legitimate, that if you can force the pen into the hand you have won.

But a signature extracted by threat is not a contract; it is evidence of a crime.

Every forged document they were so proud of, every transfer they had celebrated, was not a wall protecting their victory — it was a confession waiting to be read into a court record.

Ingrid’s trembling signature did not prove she had agreed.