Chapter 16 - THE TEST HE NEVER EXPECTED|
Vanessa agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
She provided her emails, financial records, and the documents Nathaniel had asked her to sign. Some were routine. Others were designed to make her the nominal owner of companies she had never controlled.
The $4 million transfer was only the beginning.
Northbridge Advisory had received money through three separate accounts, then transferred portions to a network of private companies.
One of those companies had paid for the security consultant who monitored my grandfather.
Another had paid a former Ashford executive who had disappeared from the company records.
The financial trail was finally becoming clear.
But the pregnancy remained a question.
Vanessa agreed to establish the timeline through her medical records. She did not want the child used as a weapon in a corporate dispute.
“I know what people will say,” she told me. “They'll call me a liar. They'll say I planned everything.”
“You don't have to prove anything to the public,” I said. “You only need to be honest with the people who matter.”
She looked at me.
“Do you hate me?”
I thought about the ballroom.
I remembered her hand resting on her stomach while Nathaniel announced the pregnancy. I remembered Margaret demanding that I kneel.
“I don't trust you,” I said. “But I don't want your child punished for what the adults have done.”
Vanessa's eyes filled.
“Thank you.”
The paternity results were not yet available, but the timeline showed that Nathaniel could not have been the father if Vanessa's dates were accurate.
He had known there was a possibility.
He had used the pregnancy anyway.
That evening, Nathaniel called me.
“Meet me.”
“No.”
“I have information about the original partnership.”
“Send it to Arthur.”
“This concerns you.”
“Everything concerns me now.”
He paused.
“Your grandfather didn't tell you everything.”
“Then tell me.”
“He made a separate agreement with my father. The trust was supposed to dissolve when the company reached a certain value.”
“Where is that agreement?”
“I have it.”
“Then produce it through your attorney.”
“You don't understand. If you take control, people will lose their jobs. Investors will lose money. Your grandfather's old decisions could destroy thousands of lives.”
“Then help us uncover the truth.”
Nathaniel's voice hardened.
“You're asking me to destroy my own family.”
“You already destroyed our marriage.”
Silence.
Then he said:
“You think you're different from me, Evelyn. But once you have power, you'll learn what it costs.”
I ended the call.
A few minutes later, Arthur entered the room holding a sealed legal notice.
“Nathaniel has filed a motion to invalidate the trust.”
“On what grounds?”
Arthur looked grim.
“He claims your grandfather transferred the shares illegally.”
May you like
Then he added:
“And he has submitted a document bearing your mother's signature.”
