Chapter 5: The Signature on the Page
The next morning, we sat across from estate attorney Miriam Shaw.
Victoria arrived with Charlotte and a silver-haired lawyer named Conrad Pierce.
Miriam placed the renunciation document before me.
“Is this your signature?” she asked.
I stared at the looping E and the hard line beneath Vale.
“It looks like mine, but I didn’t sign it.”
Conrad leaned back.
“Convenient.”
Alexander pushed the document toward him.
“She used the name Carter six years ago.
Why would she sign Vale?”
“Because Victoria told her the truth,” Conrad said.
“Emma chose her mother and rejected Gabriel.”
I looked at Victoria.
“You never told me his name.”
“I told you more than you remember.”
“You told me to sign household receipts.”
Victoria opened her handbag and removed a folder.
“Exactly.
Here are eleven receipts bearing the same signature.”
Miriam compared them.
Her brow tightened.
Conrad smiled.
“A handwriting specialist reviewed all twelve documents.
They match.”
My stomach dropped.
Alexander pointed to the witness line.
“Who is Elaine Porter?”
“The former house manager,” Victoria said.
“She moved abroad.”
“And the notary?”
“He passed away two years ago,” Conrad replied.
“Unless Mr.
Hayes plans to question him personally.”
Miriam folded her hands.
“Until the court determines otherwise, the renunciation may prevent Emma from controlling the company or mansion.”
Victoria leaned toward me.
“You see what happens when you trust strangers?”
“You emptied the trust.”
“I transferred money that belonged to this household.”
“It belonged to me.”
“You would have wasted it.”
“On what?
A bedroom with a window?”
Charlotte looked down, but Victoria did not blink.
Conrad slid another document across the table.
“Mrs.
Carter is willing to settle.
Emma receives five hundred thousand dollars and agrees not to challenge the renunciation.”
Alexander gave a humorless laugh.
“Last night the offer was two million.”
“Last night she had no lawyer,” Conrad said.
I pushed the offer back.
“No.”
Victoria’s chair scraped forward.
“Think carefully.
If you challenge me, I will tell everyone Gabriel refused to see you during his final illness.”
My throat closed.
“You said he never wanted me.”
“He asked for you at the end,” she replied.
“I told him you knew and would not come.”
The room blurred.
Miriam rose, but I held up my hand.
“You let him leave this world believing I rejected him?”
“He left us first.”
“No,” I said.
“You made sure we both believed the other had.”
Victoria’s lips thinned.
“Take the settlement.”
Alexander placed his hand beside mine, not over it.
“You do not have to answer today.”
“Yes, she does,” Conrad said.
“The offer expires at noon.”
The door behind us opened.
An elderly woman entered carrying a grocery bag.
Her gray hair was pinned neatly at her neck, and a faded housekeeper’s badge rested in her palm.
Victoria rose so quickly that her chair tipped.
“Nora?”
Nora Bennett set the badge on the table.
“You told me never to come back,” she said.
“But you forgot I kept the staff schedules.”
Conrad stood.
“My client will not be ambushed.”
Nora pulled a small notebook from the grocery bag.
“June fourteenth, six years ago,” she read.
“Mrs.
Carter dismissed the staff at three.
Charlotte remained in the study with her until six.”
Charlotte’s head snapped up.
Nora looked at me.
May you like
“I saw your sister practice your signature,” she said.
“Then I watched Victoria place the renunciation in front of her.”
