Chapter 13 - My Name Was on the Next Document
The flash drive contained 612 files.
Most were ugly.
Some were criminal.
One was terrifying.
It was a draft petition to have me declared temporarily incapacitated.
According to the document, I had become irrational under the influence of my "emotionally unstable spouse." It cited supposed erratic business decisions, unexplained transfers, and hostility toward family members.
My mother planned to remove me from control too.
"She wanted both of us gone," I said.
Sloan nodded, crying silently.
"Mom said it would only be temporary. She said once the baby was safe and the company was protected, you'd come to your senses."
"And you believed that?"
"I wanted to."
Alora leaned forward. "No. You wanted the money."
Sloan looked at her.
For once, she didn't argue.
"Yes."
The honesty was almost worse.
She admitted Corrine promised her control of two properties and a trust distribution if she helped. Grant would handle the paperwork. Evan would provide access. Dr. Vey would create the psychiatric narrative.
"Why the sledgehammer?" Ortiz asked.
Sloan wiped her face. "The electronic code wasn't working. Mom thought Alora had changed it."
"I did," Alora said.
Everyone looked at her.
She explained that three weeks earlier, she noticed the safe keypad showing failed attempts. She changed the code and didn't tell anyone, including me, because she was scared someone in my family had been testing it.
That decision may have saved us.
If the old code had worked, Corrine would have removed the originals and replaced them with forged documents before I ever returned from the airport.
Sloan gave police the location of Grant's backup server.
He had hidden it in a rented storage unit under another name.
Officers raided the unit that evening.
Grant wasn't there.
But they found passports, cash, forged seals, and a folder marked ST. CATHERINE'S.
Inside were maps of the maternity floor.
Shift schedules.
Security procedures.
And a printed copy of Alora's expected delivery date.
At the bottom of the folder was a photograph of a nurse.
The same woman who had tried to enter Alora's hospital room.
May you like
Her real name was Dana Cross.
And according to payroll records, she had once worked for my mother.
