Chapter 7: The Signature That Betrayed Them
Richard pounded on the glass.
“Open this door!”
Daniel nodded to the attendants.
“Call security.”
Elena kept her eyes on Evelyn.
“What did they ask you to sign?”
“My estate to Victoria,” Evelyn called back.
“And a statement accusing you.”
Victoria waved the document.
“Signed, witnessed, and notarized.”
Harold raised his phone.
“Then explain why your notary was in my car last Thursday discussing a blank page.”
Daniel lunged for the phone.
Richard blocked him.
“Touch him, and I’ll add it to everything else.”
“You have nothing,” Daniel said.
“Two memory cards and a confused woman.”
A uniformed officer entered with the hospital administrator and Martha behind him.
Martha pointed at Victoria.
“That’s the blouse she wore when she threw the vase.”
Victoria stared at her.
“Why are you here?”
“To give them the original camera recorder.
You only damaged the monitor.”
The officer held up an evidence bag.
“The footage shows the entire bedroom incident.
It also shows Mr.
Price entering the house yesterday with unsigned transfer papers.”
Daniel turned toward the rear exit.
A second officer stepped into his path.
“Stay where you are.”
Victoria clutched the new will.
“Evelyn signed this willingly.”
Evelyn gave a weak laugh.
“Read the name.”
Daniel snatched the page from Victoria and looked down.
“What did you do?”
“I signed Evelyn Rose Hale.”
“That is your name,” Victoria said.
“No.
My legal middle name is Ruth.
Rose was my sister.”
The notary’s seal sat beneath the false name.
Evelyn held up her ink-covered fingers.
“I dragged my hand across the page so no one could claim I signed it calmly.”
Victoria tore the will down the middle.
The officer caught her wrists before she could tear it again.
“That document is evidence.”
“You cannot do this!” Victoria shouted.
“This is my family.”
“No,” Richard said.
“This was my family.
You turned it into a hunting ground.”
Daniel pointed at Richard.
“If I fall, you fall with me.
Your signatures moved every dollar.”
Richard unlocked his phone.
“I sent my attorney every document an hour ago.
I will answer for anything I signed.”
“You’ll lose the company.”
“Then I lose it.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“Give me Harold’s recording.
I’ll return Evelyn’s money, withdraw the complaint against Mateo, and leave the country tonight.”
Elena stared at him.
“You tried to destroy my name and frighten an old woman for money.”
“I’m offering to fix it.”
“You cannot fix what you chose to become.”
Victoria twisted toward Richard.
“Listen to him.
Save the company.
We can still say Elena planned all of this.”
Richard removed his wedding ring.
“No more lies.”
He placed it on the reception desk.
Victoria’s face crumpled, then hardened.
“You’ll come crawling back when you realize Elena only protected your mother because she wanted a reward.”
Evelyn gripped the arms of her wheelchair.
“Elena never asked me for one penny.”
Daniel made a sudden move toward the fire alarm.
Harold stepped in front of it.
“Not this time, sir.”
The officers separated Daniel and Victoria.
Daniel’s polished calm finally broke.
“You think these people care about you, Victoria?
The moment the accounts are traced, they’ll know it was your idea.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You said the transfers could never be traced.”
“And you believed me.”
As they led Daniel toward the doors, he looked back at Richard.
“Your mother will forgive you.
Elena may not.”
Victoria stopped beside Elena.
“I should have gotten rid of you the first day you questioned those pills.”
Elena met her stare.
“That was your mistake.
You thought kindness meant weakness.”
Victoria was taken through the doors without another word.
Richard hurried to Evelyn and knelt beside her wheelchair.
“Mother, I’m taking you home.”
Evelyn looked past him toward Elena.
“Only if Elena comes too.”
May you like
Elena’s eyes filled, but she shook her head.
“I can’t go back to that house.”
