Chapter 18 - The False Victory
The preliminary hearing began at noon.
Sterling lawyers arrived with twelve attorneys.
Willow arrived with Naomi, Michael, Amanda, and Edward.
Reporters filled the corridor.
Richard entered without looking at his brother.
Lucas sat behind him.
For four hours, Naomi built the ownership timeline.
Catherine’s forty-nine percent.
Edward’s two percent.
The forged transfers.
The secret medical payments.
The hidden ledger.
Then Sterling counsel introduced their surprise.
A document allegedly signed by Catherine one week before her death.
It transferred all her shares to Richard for five million dollars.
The courtroom erupted in whispers.
Willow stared at the signature.
It looked perfect.
Naomi requested examination.
Sterling counsel already had an expert.
He claimed the signature was genuine.
Richard leaned back.
For the first time all day, he smiled.
If Catherine sold voluntarily, Willow’s claim could collapse.
Outside court, reporters declared Sterling had survived.
Lucas found Willow near the elevator.
“I never saw that document before.”
She looked at him.
“Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Because my father looked relieved when they brought it out.”
Willow frowned.
“So?”
“He shouldn’t be relieved if it was real.”
Lucas stepped closer.
“He should have known we had it all along.”
That night, Willow studied the transfer.
Five million dollars.
She remembered Catherine’s bank records.
No deposit.
No trust payment.
No tax record.
Then Michael noticed the notary.
Gerald Price.
He stared at the name.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“He died before this date.”
Naomi checked.
Gerald Price had died in a boating accident nine days before the document was supposedly notarized.
The signature might be Catherine’s.
The notarization was impossible.
Amanda looked at the paper.
“Could Richard have gotten her signature on something else and attached it?”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed.
“Possibly.”
Willow remembered the cassette.
Richard believes I discovered only the money.
He is wrong.
Catherine had expected forgery.
Which meant she may have left proof.
Willow opened the envelope addressed to her again.
At the bottom, beneath the signature, was a line she had overlooked.
When someone shows you my signature, look at the blue scarf.
Willow froze.
“The blue scarf.”
Michael looked up.
“What?”
Willow remembered her mother wearing it constantly.
Then she remembered something else.
After Catherine died, Michael had stored the scarf in a cedar box.
Willow ran to it.
May you like
Inside the hem was a tiny strip of microfilm.
The final secret had been sewn into her mother’s clothes for twenty-six years.
