Chapter 6: What Charlotte Signed
Charlotte shot to her feet.
“She’s lying.”
Nora did not raise her voice.
“You wore a blue school blazer.
Ink stained your right cuff.”
“I was sixteen.”
“So you remember.”
Victoria gripped Charlotte’s wrist.
“Do not say another word.”
Charlotte pulled away.
“You told me it was permission to close an old account.”
Conrad gathered his papers.
“This meeting is over.”
Miriam placed her hand on the renunciation.
“No one is leaving with this document.”
Victoria reached for it, but Alexander moved the folder beyond her reach.
“You cannot prove anything,” Victoria said.
Nora removed an old phone from her bag.
“The house intercom recorded messages automatically.
Victoria replaced the system, but she asked me to dispose of the old receiver.”
“You stole from me,” Victoria snapped.
“I saved what you ordered me to destroy.”
Nora pressed a button.
Victoria’s younger voice filled the room.
“Sign Emma Vale.
Make the E rounder.”
Then Charlotte answered, “What if she finds out?”
“She never asks questions,” Victoria said on the recording.
“That is why I keep her grateful.”
Charlotte covered her face.
I stared at her.
“You knew enough to ask.”
“I didn’t know about the inheritance.”
“You knew you were signing my name.”
“I wanted Mother to be proud of me.”
“So did I.”
The words left us both silent.
Olivia moved beside me.
She had come without jewelry, carrying the unopened letters in a plain cardboard box.
“I found more,” she said.
“They were behind the false panel in Mother’s desk.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“You searched my room?”
“I searched for Emma’s life.”
Olivia handed me a photograph of Gabriel standing outside our front gate.
A date was written on the back—my eighteenth birthday.
“He came here?” I asked.
Olivia nodded.
“I remember a man arguing with Mother outside.
She told us he was asking for money.”
Victoria folded her arms.
“Gabriel came to turn you against me.”
“He came to see his daughter,” Nora said.
Victoria pointed at her.
“You were paid to clean, not judge.”
“And Emma was born to be loved, not used.”
Miriam connected the old phone to her laptop.
“The recording and staff notes will support an emergency petition.
But Victoria may claim the audio was altered.”
“I have the original receiver in my car,” Nora said.
Conrad whispered to Victoria.
She shook her head and turned to me.
“Emma, I can still protect Olivia.”
Olivia stiffened.
“From what?”
“Your boutique was opened with money from Emma’s trust.
If investigators follow it, you could lose everything.”
Olivia took the shop keys from her purse and placed them before me.
“Then she can have it.”
“Don’t be foolish,” Victoria hissed.
Olivia pushed the keys closer.
“I will start again.”
My fingers closed around hers instead of the keys.
Tears ran down my face, and Olivia pulled me into her arms.
“I cannot return the years,” she whispered.
“No,” I said.
“But you came back into the room when leaving would have been easier.”
Alexander’s phone vibrated.
He listened to a message, then looked at me.
“Gabriel left a recorded statement,” he said.
“Miriam just received the access code.”
Miriam opened the file.
My father appeared on the screen, thinner than in the photographs.
“Emma,” he began, “if Alexander has brought you this message, ask him one question before you trust him.”
Alexander’s jaw tightened.
May you like
Gabriel looked into the camera.
“Ask him what he stood to gain if you never claimed your shares.”
