Chapter 6 - The Signature That Destroyed Everything
I walked out of the restaurant without looking back.
Daniel followed me into the lobby.
"Claire, wait."
I kept walking.
"Claire!"
He caught up near the elevators.
"You don't understand what happened."
"Then explain it."
He looked toward the hotel entrance.
"Not here."
"Why? Afraid someone will hear?"
He lowered his voice.
"I didn't forge your grandmother's signature."
Nathan's accusation echoed in my mind.
"Then whose signature is it?"
Daniel swallowed.
"Someone gave me the documents. I was told they were legitimate."
"Who?"
"Richard."
I stared at him.
"Then why did Nathan say you signed them?"
Daniel rubbed his face.
"Because I signed as an authorized representative."
"Authorized by whom?"
He didn't answer.
The elevator doors opened.
I stepped inside.
Daniel followed.
"Claire, please. We can fix this."
"You had twelve years to tell me the truth."
"I was trying to protect you."
"From what? Your mistress? Your debts? Your own decisions?"
His expression hardened.
"Vanessa wasn't supposed to become part of this."
"How romantic."
He grabbed the elevator railing.
"She was working with Richard before I knew what was happening."
"Yet you made her chief strategy officer."
"She had leverage."
"What kind of leverage?"
Daniel stared at me.
Then he said something I would remember for the rest of my life.
"She had recordings of conversations involving you and your grandmother."
The elevator stopped.
I turned toward him.
"What conversations?"
"Things your grandmother said before she died."
"About what?"
"About the trust. About the company. About who was supposed to inherit it."
My heart began pounding.
"Where are those recordings?"
"Vanessa has them."
Before I could ask another question, the elevator doors opened.
Nathan stood in the lobby.
Behind him were two attorneys and a private security officer.
"Daniel," Nathan said, "you need to come with us."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"You're not arresting me."
"No one said anything about an arrest. The board has requested that you surrender your company devices and access credentials pending the investigation."
Daniel looked at me.
"You really want to do this?"
I didn't answer.
He removed his phone and placed it in Nathan's outstretched hand.
Then he leaned toward me.
"Ask Vanessa what happened the night your grandmother died."
I froze.
"What?"
Daniel stepped away.
"You think she became involved with me because she loved me? Claire, she was looking for something."
"What happened that night?"
But he was already walking toward the exit.
Nathan waited until Daniel was gone.
"There's more," he said.
He showed me a newly recovered document.
It was a medical authorization form dated thirteen years earlier.
My grandmother had been admitted to a private hospital following a sudden collapse.
The form indicated that she had refused a specific treatment.
The signature belonged to Eleanor.
But the witness signature belonged to Richard Voss.
And the doctor listed on the document had resigned two days after her death.
"Was she murdered?" I whispered.
Nathan shook his head.
"We don't know. There isn't enough evidence to suggest that."
"Then why hide the records?"
"That's what we're investigating."
I looked at the date again.
It was the same night I had received a phone call telling me my grandmother had died peacefully in her sleep.
I remembered Daniel holding me while I cried.
I remembered him telling me there was nothing I could have done.
Then I remembered something else.
A woman had called me that evening.
She had introduced herself as a hospital nurse.
She said Eleanor had asked to speak with me.
But when I returned the call, the number was disconnected.
I had never told Daniel about that conversation.
"Find the nurse," I said.
Nathan nodded.
Then his phone rang.
He listened for several seconds before his expression changed.
"What?" I asked.
He covered the microphone.
"Vanessa just entered Hawthorne headquarters."
"Why?"
Nathan looked at me.
"She's claiming she has evidence that could prove you were never legally entitled to your forty-eight percent."
I stared at him.
Then I realized the woman in the red dress had never been competing for my husband's attention.
May you like
She had been competing for my inheritance.
And she might have been much closer to winning than either of us had realized.
