Chapter 3: My Dead Father's Signature
For several seconds, I couldn't hear anything.
Not the orchestra restarting in the distance.
Not the whispers spreading across the ballroom.
Not even Daniel calling my name.
I stared at the witness section.
*Witness: Edward Bennett.*
My father.
He had been dead for eleven years.
I remembered the morning he died.
The smell of antiseptic in the hospital corridor. The gray winter light through his window. His cold fingers wrapped around mine as he told me to protect what he had worked his entire life to give me.
He had left me his inheritance.
And that inheritance had saved Bennett Enterprises.
Now someone had used his name to steal it from me.
I looked at Margaret.
"How was this submitted?""
She lowered her voice.
"An electronic copy was filed yesterday with the corporate records department. The transfer was accompanied by an affidavit claiming that you had voluntarily assigned your controlling shares.""
"Who submitted it?""
"We're tracing the submission credentials.""
Daniel stepped forward.
"Olivia, this is a misunderstanding.""
I turned toward him.
"Did you know about this?""
He rubbed his forehead.
"I said it's a misunderstanding.""
"That's not an answer.""
Vanessa was standing behind him, her ruined dress clinging to her legs.
She suddenly spoke.
"Daniel, you told me everything was legal.""
He turned around.
"Vanessa, stop talking.""
"You said her father had already signed the original agreement!""
I felt my stomach drop.
"My father?""
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Daniel grabbed her wrist.
"Go to the car.""
She pulled away.
"Don't touch me!""
The guests were no longer pretending not to listen.
Robert quietly instructed a nearby employee to contact the hotel security manager.
Margaret took the document from my hands.
"Olivia, we should preserve this as evidence. Do not sign anything or agree to any changes until we've completed a full review.""
I nodded.
Then I looked at Daniel.
"Tell me the truth.""
He glanced around the ballroom.
"Not here.""
"You were perfectly comfortable hitting me here.""
His face tightened.
"You're making a scene.""
I stepped closer.
"No, Daniel. You made the scene. I'm just refusing to clean it up.""
For a moment, I thought he might lose control again.
Instead, he leaned toward me.
"You're going to regret turning this into a war.""
I held his gaze.
"Then you'd better make sure your paperwork is in order.""
He walked away.
Patricia followed him, muttering something about ungrateful wives and public humiliation.
Vanessa remained beside the table.
Her eyes moved from the documents to the necklace.
Then, slowly, she unclasped it.
She placed it on the table.
"I don't want this anymore.""
I looked at her.
"You should have thought about that before wearing it.""
She swallowed.
"Daniel told me you didn't care about the necklace.""
I picked it up.
"My mother gave it to me before she died.""
Vanessa's eyes briefly lowered.
For the first time that evening, she looked less confident.
But I wasn't ready to feel sorry for her.
Not yet.
Margaret escorted me into a private meeting room away from the ballroom.
Robert followed us.
The door closed.
And suddenly, the noise of two hundred people disappeared.
I sat down.
My hands were shaking.
Margaret placed a glass of water in front of me.
"Take your time.""
I stared at the forged document.
"Could someone actually transfer my shares with a fake signature?""
"Not lawfully," she replied.
"But if the supporting documents were accepted without proper verification, someone might have attempted to create a misleading record of ownership.""
Robert leaned against the table.
"Has the transfer been completed?""
"Not according to the records we've reviewed," Margaret said.
"But we need confirmation from the relevant filing offices and the company's transfer agent.""
I closed my eyes.
"How long has Daniel been planning this?""
Margaret exchanged a glance with Robert.
That glance told me more than either of them wanted to say.
"What?"" I asked.
Margaret opened another folder.
"Two months ago, Daniel requested copies of several historical corporate documents. He told our administrative department that he needed them for a financing proposal.""
"Which documents?""
"Your original investment agreement, the incorporation records, and the estate documents relating to your father's inheritance.""
My throat tightened.
"He was looking into my father's estate?""
"Yes.""
Robert sat down.
"There's something else. Three weeks ago, Daniel approached two board members about restructuring the company.""
I looked at him.
"What kind of restructuring?""
"He proposed transferring certain assets into a private holding company controlled by him.""
"Did the board approve?""
"No. We requested additional documentation.""
Margaret placed another sheet on the table.
"That holding company is connected to Cole Strategic Solutions.""
I stared at the name.
Vanessa.
So the $1.8 million wasn't simply about an affair.
The consulting company was part of something much larger.
I leaned back.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?""
Robert looked uncomfortable.
"Daniel presented the proposal as a routine executive initiative. We didn't realize you were being excluded from the discussions.""
I laughed bitterly.
"Excluded? I'm the majority shareholder.""
Margaret nodded.
"Which is precisely why the attempted transfer concerns us.""
I picked up my phone.
There were seven missed calls from Daniel.
Then a text appeared.
*Daniel: Come home. We need to discuss this before you destroy everything we've built.*
I read it twice.
Everything we'd built.
I thought about the years I'd spent supporting him.
The money I'd invested.
The meetings I'd attended quietly.
The dinners I'd missed.
The countless times I'd defended him when people questioned his decisions.
And now he wanted me to protect him from the consequences of his own actions.
I typed a response.
*Olivia: You should have thought about that before you hit me.*
I put the phone down.
Margaret opened her laptop.
"There's one more thing I need to show you.""
She turned the screen toward me.
It displayed a scanned document from the company's digital archive.
The file was dated four days earlier.
It was an authorization request for the attempted share transfer.
I leaned forward.
"Who's the applicant?""
Margaret enlarged the page.
A name appeared beneath the signature.
*Patricia Bennett.*
Daniel's mother.
I stared at it.
"Why would Patricia be involved?""
Robert frowned.
"That's what we need to determine.""
Margaret clicked another attachment.
It contained a power of attorney supposedly signed by my father, authorizing Patricia to act on behalf of his estate.
My mouth went dry.
"That's impossible. My father died eleven years ago.""
"I know," Margaret said.
I examined the document more carefully.
The date of the supposed authorization was eleven years old.
But the notary stamp was recent.
Someone had created a document claiming that my father had granted Patricia authority before his death.
And someone had recently certified it.
I whispered, "Who notarized this?""
Margaret read the name.
Then she looked at Robert.
He slowly straightened.
Because the notary wasn't some random attorney Daniel had hired.
It was the company's former accountant.
A man who had resigned six months earlier after discovering irregularities in the financial records.
I looked at Margaret.
"Where is he now?""
She closed the laptop halfway.
"That's the problem, Olivia.""
"What problem?""
"He's missing.""
My phone vibrated again.
This time, the message wasn't from Daniel.
It came from an unknown number.
*Unknown: If you want to know who really forged your father's signature, stop trusting Margaret Wilson. Ask her what happened eleven years ago, the week your father died.*
I slowly lifted my eyes.
Margaret was watching me.
May you like
And for the first time since I'd known her, I couldn't tell whether she was worried about me...
Or afraid of what I was about to discover.
