because Sheila refused to let it do anything else.\n\nAfter I got pregnant, I got slower, softer, more willing to call tension fatigue.

Derek and Sheila got smoother.

They started speaking in fragments that ended when I entered the room.

Derek began asking strange questions over dinner.

How hard was it to transfer title? Could spouses sign on behalf of each other in emergencies? Was electronic filing really secure?\n\nI answered some of those questions because I thought he was making conversation.\n\nMonica did not think so.\n\nA week before the party, she called me from her car and said, ‘I just saw Sheila coming out of a title office with Derek.’\n\nI remember laughing at first because the alternative felt absurd.

‘Maybe they were dealing with something for her condo.’\n\n’Casey,’ Monica said, ‘she got into his car and handed him a folder.

Stop protecting people who are rehearsing against you.’\n\nThat sentence sat in my chest like ice.\n\nThe next morning, I received an automated alert from a title monitoring service I had enrolled in after closing.

The subject line read: Pending instrument review.

I had not authorized any instrument review.

My hands shook so badly I had to read the message three times.\n\nBy noon I was sitting in Luis Ortega’s office while he explained, very carefully, that someone had submitted a quitclaim deed transferring my apartment from me to Sheila Vance.

The filing hadn’t cleared because the signature didn’t match previous records and the notary seal raised immediate concerns.

The documents were being held for investigation.\n\nI thought I was going to throw up.\n\n’Can they really do that?’ I asked.\n\nLuis folded his hands.

‘They can submit it.

That doesn’t make it legal.

But it does make it fraud.’\n\nI looked at the copy on his desk.

My name was on the deed.

My signature was there too, or something close enough to fool someone skimming fast.

Under grantor address, they had listed a mailing address I hadn’t used in years.

Under witness section sat a notary seal from Santa Fe.\n\nDenise from the county fraud unit joined us twenty minutes later and explained the rest.

The notary whose seal appeared on the deed had reported that seal stolen months earlier.

The submission had been uploaded from a business center kiosk using a prepaid account.

Security footage had captured two people at the machine.

The man kept his cap low.

The woman did not.

Sheila had apparently worn the same confidence to commit fraud that she wore to parties.\n\nI asked what we should do.

Denise said there were enough problems with the filing to stop it from recording.

Luis asked whether I wanted to confront them immediately.\n\nBefore I could answer, Monica said, ‘No.

Let them walk all the way into it.’\n\nI turned toward her.\n\nShe held my gaze.

‘If Sheila is arrogant enough to announce it publicly, let her.

Derek too.

Let them say it in front of witnesses.

Let them believe you’ve frozen.

Then you bring the floor out from under them.’\n\nLuis did not smile, but he didn’t disagree.

Denise only said, ‘If they make a public claim tied to a fraudulent filing, it helps us.’\n\nSo we made a plan.

I didn’t cancel the party.

I didn’t confront Derek.

I copied my closing documents, put them in my purse, and let both of them think I was exactly what