Chapter 5 - THE DEAD MAN WHO KEPT SIGNING PAPERS.
Charles Sterling had suffered a stroke but remained conscious. His staged death let Victoria and Blair use his signature without public questions.
He admitted ordering Elena confined after she refused a settlement.
Blair stared at him. “You said she was dangerous.”
“I told you what kept the estate in the family.”
She had inherited prejudice, but she had chosen to drag Riley before hundreds of guests.
Investigators found Charles’s signature on pension transfers, guardianships and the merger. Some were real; others were copied after his “death.”
Workers received service pins while the family bought vacation homes.
Mason removed his ring.
“There will be no marriage and no merger.”
Blair accused him of saving his reputation.
Riley answered, “You abandoned people whose names you never learned.”
One ledger page listed Officer Wright’s late father, Samuel, a porter whose pension vanished after thirty-two years.
Wright transferred the financial evidence to another officer.
“My family is in this ledger.”
May you like
Then he looked at Blair.
“The assault I witnessed remains my case.”
