Chapter 6 - The Forged Name
Victoria turned toward Leah.
“She had access to the office during events.”
Suspicion moved downward instantly.
The waitress.
The employee with the trays.
The person allowed inside valuable rooms but never expected to defend herself.
Leah’s face burned.
“I delivered coffee.”
“You handled Eleanor’s papers.”
“I carried sealed folders.”
“You knew her schedule.”
Arthur interrupted.
“Evidence.”
Not accusation.
The ballroom became silent again.
Leah produced her service logs.
Every delivery had been recorded because Victoria’s office had previously blamed staff for a missing donor contract.
On the date of the largest transfer, Leah had not been in the mansion.
She was at Maple House taking her mother to a medical appointment.
Security records confirmed it.
Victoria changed direction.
“Then another employee forged the signature.”
Eleanor looked at her.
“You keep looking toward uniforms because you cannot bear to look toward mirrors.”
The accountant traced the electronic approvals.
They came from Arthur’s office tablet.
Only four people knew its access code.
Arthur.
His chief attorney.
Victoria.
And Eleanor.
Arthur had written the code on a card inside his desk because he disliked remembering passwords.
Victoria knew where he kept it.
But the office camera showed she was greeting donors when one approval was entered.
Someone else had used the tablet.
Arthur’s chief attorney joined the review by video.
He denied submitting the documents.
Then Leah remembered seeing a young gala assistant leave Arthur’s office carrying a burgundy folder.
The assistant worked for Victoria’s development company.
Victoria’s fear deepened.
“I did not authorize her to enter.”
The assistant’s employment record revealed something unexpected.
She had not been hired by Victoria.
She was assigned through Arthur’s family office.
Arthur looked toward his chief attorney.
The attorney stopped answering.
The video connection ended.
The accountant opened the attorney’s confidential billing file.
For three years, he had charged both Arthur and Victoria for the same transactions.
He had prepared the medical declaration.
The property sale.
The forged foundation approvals.
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And a second contract neither Arthur nor Victoria had seen.
It transferred Maple House to the attorney himself after the development company defaulted.
