CHAPTER 3 — THE MAN WHO KNEW MY FATHER
Elias Warren had handled my father’s legal affairs for nearly twenty years.
He had drafted the original trust.
He had attended my wedding.
After my father’s funeral, he had sat beside me in the family library and promised that Bennett Ridge Capital would always remain protected.
Now his signature appeared beneath a forged loan application.
Victoria contacted him immediately.
At first, Elias claimed he was traveling.
Then he said he was ill.
Finally, after being told that federal investigators might become involved, he agreed to meet us at his office.
His hands trembled when I entered the conference room.
He looked ten years older than I remembered.
“Claire,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry about your face.”
I remained standing.
“Did you notarize my signature?”
Elias looked toward Victoria.
She placed the document on the table.
He didn’t touch it.
“Arthur brought it to me.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Elias closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
“You knew I wasn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“Then why?”
He stared down at the polished table.
“Arthur had photographs.”
“Of what?”
“My son.”
Elias explained that his son, David, had developed a serious gambling problem. Arthur had discovered the debt and paid part of it.
Then he used the remaining debt as leverage.
Arthur threatened to report David for stealing money from a client account unless Elias cooperated.
“You could have come to me,” I said.
“I was ashamed.”
“So you helped him steal millions from me?”
“I thought it was one document.”
Victoria leaned forward.
“It wasn’t.”
Elias’s breathing became shallow.
He admitted notarizing five documents.
A power of attorney.
A stock authorization.
Two loan applications.
And a medical directive.
I felt the temperature of the room drop.
“What medical directive?”
Elias opened a locked drawer.
From inside, he removed a sealed folder.
The document claimed that I suffered from severe psychological instability and had voluntarily given Arthur authority to manage my financial decisions if I became “incapable of rational judgment.”
My forged signature appeared at the bottom.
The accompanying letter was supposedly written by a psychiatrist.
I had never met the doctor.
Arthur hadn’t just been stealing from me.
He had been building a legal foundation to take control of everything.
Victoria studied the document.
“Why wasn’t this filed?”
“Arthur was waiting.”
“For what?”
Elias looked at my bandaged face.
“For an incident that would make Claire appear unstable.”
My skin suddenly felt cold despite the burns.
Arthur’s behavior that morning had not been random.
He had thrown the coffee.
He had told me to leave.
He had expected me to react.
If I had struck him, broken something, or screamed threats, he might have used it as proof that I was dangerous and irrational.
Instead, I had walked away.
Elias leaned closer.
“There’s one more thing you need to know.”
He glanced toward the closed conference-room door.
“Arthur wasn’t planning to wait much longer.”
Victoria’s voice became sharp.
“What was he planning?”
Before Elias could answer, the fire alarm began screaming throughout the building.
Smoke appeared beneath the conference-room door.
May you like
Someone had started a fire outside Elias’s records room.
And the original documents proving Arthur’s fraud were inside it.
