Chapter 7: The Lie She Couldn’t Hold Together
Daniel went pale.
“You’re pregnant?”
Tiffany placed a hand over her stomach.
“Nine weeks.”
Richard smiled again.
“Now perhaps everyone will behave like adults.”
I rose slowly.
“A child does not erase a forged signature.”
“No,” Tiffany said, “but it gives Daniel something more important than your wounded pride.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I planned to announce it during our honeymoon.”
Naomi folded her hands.
“Do you have medical confirmation?”
“That is none of your business.”
“It becomes relevant when you use it to pressure my client into surrendering evidence.”
Tiffany pulled Daniel into the hallway.
Their voices carried through the open door.
“Sign the agreement with me,” she whispered.
“Your mother drops everything, Dad returns the land, and we start over.”
“You just said Bellweather legally owned it.”
“Dad controls Bellweather.
He can transfer it back.”
Richard rushed toward the doorway.
“Tiffany, stop talking.”
She froze.
Naomi turned on her phone’s recorder.
“Richard, did you hear your daughter identify you as the person controlling Bellweather?”
His lawyer stood.
“This meeting is over.”
Elaine blocked Richard’s path.
“Not until Margaret hears the rest.”
Richard tried to take her phone, but Daniel caught his wrist.
“Don’t touch her.”
The manager played the remaining audio.
Richard’s voice filled the room.
“Once Bellweather sells the parcel, we recover the wedding costs and more.
Margaret will think she chose all of it.”
Then Tiffany answered.
“And if she notices the signature?”
“She won’t fight her only son.”
Daniel released Richard as though his skin had burned him.
Tiffany pointed at me.
“You turned him against me!”
“No,” Daniel said.
“I finally listened to you.”
She reached for his hand.
“I’m carrying your baby.”
“Show me the appointment confirmation.”
“I don’t have to prove anything.”
Elaine looked at her daughter.
“There is no baby, is there?”
“Stay out of this!”
“You drank champagne at the rehearsal dinner.
When I questioned you, you said you weren’t trying yet.”
Tiffany’s breathing quickened.
Daniel held out his palm.
“Your phone.”
“No.”
“If there’s an appointment, show me.”
“You pathetic fool!” she shouted.
“There is no baby.
I said it because you were letting that woman destroy my life!”
The room went silent.
Naomi stopped the recording.
“Thank you, Tiffany.”
Tiffany lunged for the phone.
A chair tipped as Daniel stepped between them.
“You recorded me!”
“You chose every word,” I said.
Two investigators from the county financial-crjmes unit entered with a uniformed officer.
Naomi had called them before the meeting.
The lead investigator held out his hand.
“We have a warrant for the electronic devices used to prepare the authorization and records connected to Bellweather Holdings.”
Richard backed toward the second door.
“You cannot take my files.”
“We can, and we will.”
Tiffany looked at Daniel.
“Tell them this is a family misunderstanding.”
“Our marriage was the misunderstanding,” he replied.
The officer escorted her toward the hallway.
She twisted back toward me.
“You wanted your son to yourself, and now you have him!”
I shook my head.
“No, Tiffany.
Now he has to learn how to stand on his own.”
Richard’s lawyer left without looking at him.
Elaine watched as investigators sealed Richard’s laptop inside an evidence bag.
Naomi placed another document in front of Daniel.
“What is that?” he asked.
“A petition to freeze Bellweather’s sale of your mother’s land.”
Richard stopped at the door.
“You’ll never get that property back,” he said.
May you like
Naomi looked at the investigator carrying his computer.
“We’ll let the records answer that.”
