Chapter 18 - Theodore
Nathan did not believe it.
Then he remembered every document Theodore had touched.
The original trust.
The amendments.
The safe-deposit box.
The emergency freeze.
He had been inside the story from the beginning.
Detective Mills interviewed Theodore before dawn.
Theodore denied everything.
Victoria provided a bank account number.
Money had moved from a shell company tied to Daniel Kerr into an account held by Theodore’s consulting firm six years earlier.
Then again two years ago.
Theodore claimed the payments were legal consulting fees.
Mills found drafts of the false trust amendment on an old server backup.
Nathan felt betrayed in a way that was almost childish.
Theodore had been Claire’s attorney before he became Nathan’s.
He had sat at her funeral.
He had hugged the girls.
By noon, Theodore asked to speak with Nathan privately.
Mills allowed it through glass in an interview room.
Theodore looked twenty years older.
“I never intended for anyone to get hurt.”
Nathan stared at him. “That is what cowards say after other people bleed.”
Theodore flinched.
“Daniel came to me before Claire got sick. He had records that could have destroyed my firm. I had backdated documents for a client years earlier. He knew.”
“So you helped him steal from my daughters.”
“I drafted an amendment. Claire discovered it before it was executed.”
“And after she died?”
“Victoria contacted me. She said she had the signed copy.”
“Forged.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
Theodore looked down.
Nathan’s voice became quiet. “Did Claire know you betrayed her?”
Tears appeared in the older man’s eyes.
“Yes.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
One more wound Claire had carried alone.
“Why did you help me freeze the trust?”
“Because I was trying to stop it before you learned what I had done.”
“That wasn’t courage.”
“No.”
“That was cleanup.”
“Yes.”
Theodore pushed one sheet of paper toward the glass.
“There is one thing Victoria does not know.”
Nathan looked at it.
“What?”
“Daniel never had the final forged amendment.”
“Then who does?”
Theodore swallowed.
“Claire did.”
Nathan frowned.
“She kept it because she wanted evidence.”
“Where?”
Theodore looked straight at him.
“She put it somewhere Daniel would never search.”
Nathan waited.
“In the girls’ play kitchen.”
Nathan remembered the little wooden kitchen Claire had bought Ava when she turned four.
It had been moved to storage after Claire died.
May you like
He returned home and opened the storage room.
The play kitchen was gone.
