Chapter 16 - The Woman Who Wrote the Trust
Judith Shaw agreed to meet us in a church parking lot.
No police. No security. That was her condition.
Ortiz ignored it and placed officers two blocks away.
Judith arrived in a silver sedan wearing pearls and a camel coat. She looked like someone’s elegant grandmother, not a woman tied to a corporate war.
Rebecca walked up first.
“You used my account.”
Judith’s face tightened. “I was protecting you.”
“By attacking my client?”
“By trying to end this before Kane starts killing people you love.”
I stepped forward. “You know him.”
Judith looked at me for a long moment.
“I represented him once.”
Dominic’s voice turned cold. “Before or after you represented my father?”
“Both.”
That hit harder than any of us expected.
Judith admitted she had rewritten parts of the Moretti trust under pressure twenty years earlier. Kane knew about hidden assets, offshore companies, and crimes that could have destroyed Dominic’s father.
“So you gave Kane a future claim?” Rebecca asked.
“No. I created a contingency. If Moretti blood produced no heir, a dormant block of shares would liquidate and pay into a settlement trust Kane controlled.”
“But Dominic has heirs now,” I said.
“Yes. Which means Kane loses that money forever when your babies are born.”
There it was.
Not just revenge.
A fortune.
“How much?” Dominic asked.
Judith looked at him.
“Roughly nine hundred million dollars.”
Even Dominic went quiet.
Judith opened her purse and handed Rebecca a key.
“There is a safety-deposit box under my name. The original trust amendments are inside.”
“Why help us now?” Rebecca asked.
“Because Kane changed the plan. He was supposed to pressure the company. He was never supposed to touch children.”
A red dot appeared on Judith’s coat.
I saw it before anyone else.
“Down!” I screamed.
Dominic tackled her.
A bullet shattered the windshield of the silver sedan.
Officers rushed in.
The shooter vanished between two buildings.
Judith lay on the pavement, shaking.
Then her phone buzzed.
May you like
One message.
YOU JUST CHOSE THE WRONG FAMILY.
