Chapter 4 - The Man With Two Loyalties
By sunrise, Corrine and Sloan were in county jail awaiting arraignment.
Grant Hale was calling me every six minutes.
I didn't answer until Detective Ortiz told me to put him on speaker.
"Thane," Grant said immediately, "your mother called me from booking. This situation has clearly gotten out of control."
"She attacked my pregnant wife."
A pause.
"That's her account."
I looked at Ortiz.
She lifted one eyebrow.
"There is video," I said.
Grant went quiet.
"How much video?"
Not Are they okay?
Not Is Alora hurt?
How much video?
"Enough."
His breathing changed.
"Listen to me. Don't make permanent decisions in an emotional state. Your mother believes she's protecting the Sterling assets."
"From my wife?"
"From uncertainty."
I almost laughed.
"Did you draft an emergency custody petition naming Alora as an unfit mother?"
Another pause.
"I draft many documents."
"Did you draft this one?"
"Thane, attorney-client privilege—"
"Whose privilege? Mine or hers?"
He hung up.
Ortiz smiled without humor. "That was helpful."
By afternoon, I had hired a new attorney, Mara Voss, a former prosecutor who spoke in short sentences and seemed allergic to excuses.
She read the petition once.
"This isn't only a custody strategy," she said. "Look here."
She pointed to an attached trust amendment.
If I died or became incapacitated before my son's birth, control of several Sterling family trusts would temporarily pass to Corrine.
If Alora were declared unfit after the birth, Corrine could petition for guardianship.
"She wasn't trying to steal one property," Mara said. "She was building a legal road to your entire estate."
"She couldn't do that without my signature."
Mara turned the page.
There it was.
My signature.
Perfectly copied.
Except I had never signed the document.
I stared at it until my vision blurred.
"Forgery?"
"Probably."
"How did she get access to this?"
Mara closed the folder.
"Someone inside your company or legal team helped her."
My phone buzzed.
May you like
A security alert from my office building appeared on the screen.
At 4:17 A.M., while police were still at my house, someone had entered my executive records room using my personal access credentials.
