Catherine took a deep breath and watched as Clark shuffled the papers in his folder. She could have signed them all before coming to the house, but she'd wanted to do it in front of her aunt and uncle.

Clark placed the tables on the low coffee table, and she knelt. She took the heavy metal pen he offered and signed her name, dragging the pen across the paper as slowly as possible. She finished with a flourish and reached for the next page. Except for the scratch of the pen on paper, the room ...