PART 4 — THE FORGED WILL AND THE WOMAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING
Nobody moved.
Charles Harrison stood beside the dining table, holding Michael’s phone as though it contained something dangerous.
Eleanor’s face had turned pale.
Michael finally broke the silence.
“What do you mean someone forged Dad’s signature?”
Charles enlarged the photograph on the screen.
“Jonathan had a very distinctive way of signing his name. I witnessed him sign dozens of legal documents over twenty years. This signature is different.”
Eleanor suddenly reached for her coffee.
Her hands were shaking so badly that the cup rattled against the saucer.
“People’s signatures change,” she said.
Charles looked at her.
“Not two years after they’ve died.”
The room went completely silent.
I stared at Eleanor.
“What?”
Charles turned the phone toward us.
“The document is dated fourteen months after Jonathan’s death.”
Michael stumbled backward.
“That can’t be right.”
Charles pointed to the date.
“Look for yourself.”
Michael leaned closer.
His face collapsed.
“Mom, what have you done?”
Eleanor pushed her chair back.
“I haven’t done anything!”
“Then why does Victoria have a document supposedly signed by my dead father?” Michael demanded.
Eleanor didn’t answer.
I felt my stomach twist.
For five years, I had thought Eleanor was simply a controlling woman who couldn’t accept another woman in her son’s life.
But now I was beginning to understand that her behavior might have been hiding something much bigger.
Charles placed the phone on the table.
“Michael, I need you to tell me exactly how Victoria obtained this document.”
Michael rubbed his forehead.
“She told me Dad had established another trust before he died. She claimed Mom had been trying to access it for years.”
“And you believed her?”
“She showed me bank records. Legal papers. Things that looked official.”
Charles frowned.
“Did she ask you for money?”
Michael’s eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Michael hesitated.
“Two hundred thousand.”
I stared at him.
“Michael, please tell me you didn’t give her another $200,000.”
His silence answered my question.
Charles slowly removed his glasses.
“Where did you get that money?”
Michael swallowed.
“From the property management account.”
Eleanor suddenly covered her face.
I felt dizzy.
“So the money your father left to maintain this house was being handed to your ex-fiancée?”
Michael looked at me desperately.
“Lisa, I thought she was helping us recover Dad’s missing assets.”
“And you never once considered telling me?”
He lowered his head.
“I was afraid you’d leave.”
I looked at the suitcases still standing beside the front door.
“No, Michael. You were afraid I’d find out.”
Charles interrupted before Michael could respond.
“We need to establish whether Victoria fabricated this document herself or whether someone gave it to her.”
Eleanor suddenly stood.
“This discussion has gone far enough.”
Charles looked directly at her.
“Eleanor, sit down.”
Something in his voice made even Michael turn.
“I have represented this family for nearly thirty years. I respected Jonathan, and I tried to respect your wishes after he passed away. But if you participated in creating false estate documents, I cannot ignore that.”
Eleanor stared at him.
Then she whispered, “You don’t understand.”
“Then help me understand.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Jonathan was going to take everything away from me.”
The words came out so quietly that I almost missed them.
Michael frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Eleanor sank back into her chair.
“Your father discovered something before he died. Something that would have destroyed this family.”
Charles became completely still.
“What did he discover?”
Eleanor looked toward me.
Then she said, “He discovered that Victoria was stealing from our business.”
Michael shook his head.
“No. Victoria worked for Dad for only two years.”
“And during those two years,” Eleanor replied, “she managed to redirect hundreds of thousands of dollars into accounts your father didn’t recognize.”
I stared at her.
“Then why were you giving her money again?”
Eleanor’s lips trembled.
“Because she threatened to expose something about me.”
Charles leaned forward.
“What exactly?”
Eleanor began crying.
Real tears.
For the first time since I had known her, the woman who criticized everything from my cooking to the way I folded towels seemed genuinely frightened.
“After Jonathan became ill, I signed several documents using his name. I told myself it was necessary. Bills needed paying. Decisions needed making.”
Charles looked horrified.
“Eleanor, you had a valid power of attorney for certain transactions. Why would you sign Jonathan’s name?”
“Because some of the transfers weren’t authorized.”
Michael covered his mouth.
“Mom…”
Eleanor continued.
“Victoria found copies of those documents before she left the company. She told me that if I didn’t cooperate, she would report everything.”
I stared at her.
“So you gave her almost a million dollars?”
“I thought she would stop.”
Charles shook his head.
“Blackmail rarely ends because someone pays.”
Michael slammed his hand on the table.
“You let me sign paperwork! You put the company in my name!”
Eleanor began sobbing.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“No,” Michael snapped. “You were protecting yourself!”
His voice echoed through the dining room.
I had never heard him speak to his mother that way.
Not once in five years.
But I didn’t feel proud of him.
He had found his courage only after discovering that her actions could destroy his own future.
Charles stood.
“We need to preserve every document, message, and bank record. No more private arrangements. No more transfers. And nobody should contact Victoria without legal advice.”
Eleanor wiped her cheeks.
“What happens now?”
“That will depend on the evidence,” Charles replied. “But the trust’s independent trustees need to be notified, and the suspicious transactions must be investigated.”
Michael turned toward me.
“Lisa, please. You have to believe I didn’t understand what was happening.”
I looked at him.
“You knew Victoria was involved. You knew money was being transferred. You knew your mother wanted me out of this house.”
He opened his mouth.
I continued.
“And yesterday, when I asked you to stand beside me, you couldn’t even look me in the eyes.”
He began crying.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
“No, Michael. A mistake is forgetting an anniversary. You made choices, over and over again, and every single one of them told me where I stood.”
He reached for my hand.
I stepped away.
Charles quietly spoke.
“Lisa, there’s another issue regarding the trust that we need to discuss.”
Eleanor looked up sharply.
“What now?”
Charles opened the original estate folder.
“Before Jonathan died, he instructed an independent accountant to review certain financial arrangements if irregularities were ever discovered.”
Michael frowned.
“And?”
“That accountant completed a preliminary review four days ago.”
Eleanor’s face went white.
Charles continued.
“The review identified transfers that predate Victoria’s recent involvement. Some occurred while Jonathan was still alive.”
I felt my heart pounding.
“How much money?”
Charles hesitated.
“Approximately $1.7 million in additional transactions that require explanation.”
Michael stared at his mother.
“Another $1.7 million?”
Eleanor shook her head repeatedly.
“No. No, that isn’t possible.”
Charles placed a spreadsheet on the table.
“Several transfers went into an account registered to a holding company called Westbrook Holdings.”
Michael looked confused.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
Neither had I.
But Eleanor suddenly stopped shaking.
And that frightened me more than anything.
Charles noticed.
“You recognize the name?”
She looked toward the window.
“No.”
Charles studied her.
“Eleanor, the company was registered using an address associated with the Richardson family.”
I leaned forward.
“What address?”
He checked the documents.
“An office building on Madison Avenue.”
My breath caught.
I knew that address.
Three years earlier, Eleanor had asked me to deliver a sealed envelope there.
She told me it contained insurance documents.
I remembered the receptionist.
The expensive office.
And the woman who came out to collect the envelope.
A tall woman with dark hair and a familiar smile.
I slowly turned toward Michael.
“Your mother sent me to that building once.”
He frowned.
“For what?”
“I don’t know. She said I was delivering paperwork.”
Charles immediately looked interested.
“Do you remember who received it?”
I closed my eyes.
I could still picture her.
She had worn a navy-blue suit and introduced herself as the office manager.
Then I remembered the name printed on the small brass plaque beside the reception desk.
Victoria Hale.
I opened my eyes.
“It was Victoria.”
Michael went completely still.
Eleanor whispered, “Lisa, please.”
I stared at her.
“You used me to deliver documents to the woman you were secretly paying?”
Eleanor’s shoulders collapsed.
Charles began taking notes.
“What did the envelope look like?”
“Large. Cream-colored. It had a red security seal.”
Charles froze.
“A red seal?”
I nodded.
He slowly reached into his briefcase and removed a photograph.
“Did it look like this?”
I stared at the image.
It showed an identical envelope.
“Yes. Exactly.”
Charles looked deeply troubled.
“That envelope was supposed to remain inside Jonathan’s private estate archive.”
Michael frowned.
“What was inside it?”
Charles took a long breath.
“The original ownership records for Westbrook Holdings.”
Eleanor suddenly stood.
“Charles, don’t say another word.”
But he continued.
“According to the estate records, Westbrook Holdings was established by Jonathan before his death. Its ownership structure was never fully disclosed during the initial estate administration.”
I looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Charles paused.
“It means we need to determine who legally controls the company and whether its assets were improperly transferred.”
Michael looked toward his mother.
“How much is Westbrook Holdings worth?”
Charles studied the paperwork.
“The last available valuation placed its assets at approximately $6.4 million.”
I couldn’t speak.
Six point four million dollars.
Eleanor gripped the table.
Michael looked as though he might faint.
Then Charles said something that made my entire body go cold.
“There’s another name listed in the company’s original records.”
Eleanor began shaking her head.
“Please, Charles.”
He looked directly at me.
“Lisa, it’s yours.”
I stared at him.
“That doesn’t make sense. Jonathan died before I married Michael.”
Charles nodded.
“Which is why this is so unusual. The original documents refer to a future beneficiary, but someone subsequently submitted paperwork specifically naming you.”
Michael looked at his mother.
“Who submitted it?”
Charles turned a page.
“The application was filed three years ago.”
My heart was racing.
Three years ago.
The same year Eleanor had sent me to that office.
I looked at Charles.
“Are you saying someone used my name without my permission?”
He nodded slowly.
“That’s exactly what we’re going to investigate.”
Eleanor sank into her chair.
Then, in a barely audible voice, she said something I would never forget.
“I never wanted Lisa to find out.”
Michael stared at her.
“Find out what?”
Eleanor looked at me with tears running down her face.
And for the first time, she didn’t look angry.
She looked defeated.
“Your father didn’t choose Lisa by accident,” she whispered.
Michael frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Eleanor shook her head.
“There’s something about Lisa’s family that neither of you knows.”
My chest tightened.
“My family?”
Eleanor slowly nodded.
Then she looked toward Charles.
“Tell her who her father really was.”
I felt the room tilt beneath my feet.
“My father died when I was sixteen.”
Eleanor lowered her eyes.
Charles stared at her in disbelief.
“Eleanor, are you saying Jonathan knew about Lisa’s father?”
She nodded.
“He knew everything.”
I gripped the back of my chair.
“Everything about what?”
Eleanor opened her mouth.
But before she could answer, Charles’s phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression changed instantly.
“It’s the accountant reviewing Westbrook Holdings.”
He answered.
For nearly a minute, he said nothing.
Then he whispered, “Are you absolutely certain?”
The room fell silent.
Charles slowly lowered the phone.
I looked at him.
“What happened?”
His face was pale.
“The accountant has located the original Westbrook ownership agreement.”
Michael stepped forward.
“And?”
Charles turned toward me.
“Lisa, according to the document, your father’s name appears alongside Jonathan Richardson’s as one of the company’s two founding owners.”
My knees nearly gave way.
Then Charles delivered the words that changed everything.
“And if those ownership records are authentic, your father’s share may have passed into his estate when he died.”
I stared at the lawyer, unable to breathe.
But Eleanor suddenly whispered something even more terrifying.
“That’s why Jonathan wanted Michael to marry her.”
And in that moment, I realized my marriage might have been built on a secret that began long before I ever met my husband……….
TO BE CONTINUED IN LAST PART…
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