Chapter 19 - The Last Forgery
Nobody admitted moving the play kitchen.
Not Emma.
Not Rachel.
Not the remaining staff.
Nathan checked inventory logs.
Three months earlier, Victoria had ordered a charity pickup from the mansion.
Twelve boxes and several children’s toys had been donated.
The play kitchen was on the list.
Nathan almost laughed.
After kidnappings, forged signatures, hidden microphones, and a marina arrest, the last piece of evidence might be sitting in a thrift store.
The charity traced the pickup.
The wooden kitchen had been transferred to a family shelter downtown.
Nathan, Emma, and Detective Mills drove there that afternoon.
A little boy was making plastic soup on the tiny stove when they arrived.
Nathan crouched beside him.
“Can I borrow your kitchen for a minute?”
The boy looked suspicious. “Why?”
Emma knelt beside Nathan. “Because grown-ups lose things in very silly places.”
The boy considered this and moved aside.
They searched every drawer.
Nothing.
Nathan checked the back panel.
One screw was different from the others.
He removed it.
A narrow envelope slid into his hand.
Claire’s handwriting covered the front.
PROOF - DO NOT DESTROY.
Inside was the forged trust amendment carrying Nathan’s fake signature, Claire’s fake signature, and Theodore’s real witness stamp.
Attached was a handwritten note from Claire.
Nathan read it silently.
Then again.
Emma touched his arm. “What does it say?”
He handed it to her.
If this document is found after I’m gone, then Nathan probably blamed himself for not seeing what was happening.
Tell him I knew him better than that.
He notices danger when it is loud.
He misses it when it is quiet.
That is his weakness.
It is also something he can change.
Tell him to come home.
Nathan looked away.
For almost two years, he had interpreted coming home as entering the mansion.
Claire had meant something else.
Mills took custody of the document.
With the paper amendment, server drafts, bank transfers, surveillance evidence, Victoria’s cooperation, and Daniel’s recorded statements, prosecutors finally had the full chain.
The case was no longer built on suspicion.
It was built on proof.
That evening, Nathan returned to the mansion.
The girls were in the kitchen.
Emma had set out flour again.
Ava looked at him nervously. “Are we allowed?”
Nathan took off his jacket.
“Move over.”
Chloe blinked. “You’re baking?”
“No.”
Lily smiled. “You don’t know how?”
Nathan rolled up his sleeves.
“I know how to acquire companies.”
Emma handed him a bowl. “Tonight you’re acquiring basic bread skills.”
The girls laughed.
Nathan laughed too.
Then the front gate buzzer sounded.
Everyone went quiet.
Nathan checked the monitor.
May you like
A woman stood outside holding a small suitcase.
She looked exactly like Claire.
