Chapter 9 - THE FUNERAL WITHOUT THOMAS REED.
Thomas Reed’s casket had remained closed because the Hale family claimed the accident caused severe injuries.
The notebook contained medical payments made for years after his supposed death.
Arthur had moved Thomas into a private residence under another name after the accident failed to kill him.
Richard knew the residence existed.
He had visited once to obtain Thomas’s signature on a deed.
Emma looked at her former husband.
“You stood beside my father while letting me grieve him.”
Richard whispered, “Arthur told me he could not remember you.”
“You did not want him to remember. You wanted his hand.”
The police located Thomas alive, weak but mentally clear.
His testimony confirmed Arthur’s fraud and Richard’s attempt to take Lily’s shares.
Arthur, Richard, Marcus, and Nathan were arrested. Caroline’s marriage license was suspended before filing.
At the courthouse, Arthur complained that Emma was destroying a historic family business.
She placed the worker contracts before him.
“You inherited a name. My father and these employees built the value beneath it.”
The judge froze every Hale asset and denied Richard access to Lily.
Then Thomas asked to see the ballroom camera footage.
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He recognized a woman standing behind Lily during Richard’s threat.
She was Emma’s mother—declared dead twenty years earlier.
