Chapter 7 - Emma’s Signature
Every face turned toward Emma.
Victoria smiled for the first time since the phone was found.
“Tell them, Emma.”
Ethan stared at his sister.
“Did you approve that payment?”
Emma examined the transfer.
The signature was real.
“Yes.”
The admission shocked the ballroom.
The money had been labeled a redevelopment consultation fee.
Emma signed it six months earlier.
“You knew about the sale?” Ethan asked.
“I knew Victoria’s father wanted access to the properties.”
“And you paid him?”
Emma’s voice remained controlled.
“I authorized a refundable deposit to obtain their full development plans.”
Victoria laughed.
“You participated until you realized you would lose control.”
Emma looked at her.
“No.”
“I needed written proof that your family intended to remove every tenant.”
The development plan contained internal projections.
Higher rents.
Staff reductions.
No guaranteed relocation.
Historic employee buildings renamed after private investors.
Emma had used the deposit to force Victoria’s family to reveal the entire scheme.
But she had not told Ethan.
She feared he would warn Victoria.
Ethan looked wounded.
“You didn’t trust me.”
Emma looked toward the signed prenuptial amendment.
“You didn’t read what she gave you.”
Silence.
Both siblings had allowed secrecy to grow.
Emma’s secrecy exposed the plan.
Ethan’s carelessness nearly completed it.
The employee council ordered the deposit recovered with interest.
Victoria’s family accounts were frozen pending repayment.
Then the venue manager found a second signature beneath Emma’s.
Ethan’s late mother, Margaret Merrick.
May you like
She had supposedly died five years earlier.
The signature was dated last month.
