Chapter 7 - A Dead Woman’s Number
The call to E. Reyes lasted forty-three seconds.
The number was active, registered through an encrypted business service, and routed overseas before returning to the city. Detectives could not identify the subscriber immediately. Beatrice refused to explain why a dead woman’s name appeared in her contacts.
“It was a private joke,” she said.
“With whom?” Valerie asked.
Beatrice looked toward her attorney. “I will not answer questions without counsel.”
That restraint was unlike her. Beatrice usually filled silence with accusations. Now she sat straight-backed in the morning room, hands folded, watching everyone as if measuring how much they knew.
Roger had been taken to the station for questioning about the assault and the hidden room. He was released pending investigation before sunrise. Sebastian remained at the mansion under no formal arrest, but officers warned him not to leave the jurisdiction. Marissa was admitted to St. Anne’s Hospital for observation.
At six, the foreclosure access team arrived.
They were not bailiffs. They were auditors and property specialists representing the special assets fund that held the forged mansion loan. Their authorization appeared valid on its face, despite the suspicious documents beneath it.
Naomi obtained an emergency delay, but only for seventy-two hours.
“The fund claims it purchased the debt in good faith,” she told Valerie. “If we prove the underlying fraud, the lien can be voided. Until then, they will inventory the property and prepare for seizure.”
“Who owns the fund?”
“That is buried behind layers. We are tracing it.”
Valerie walked through the mansion as small numbered tags appeared on furniture, paintings, silver, and wine. Beatrice followed the auditors, insisting certain pieces were ancestral and therefore untouchable. Camila filmed herself crying in the dressing room until Naomi threatened to seek a gag order.
Sebastian found Valerie in the old nursery.
The hidden door had been sealed with evidence tape. Morning light revealed childlike stars painted on the ceiling. Valerie wondered whether Beatrice had once planned for grandchildren here or whether the room had always been another stage set.
“I want to tell you everything,” Sebastian said.
“You have had five years.”
“I did not know about the guardianship plan.”
“You knew enough to steal embryos.”
His face crumpled. “Dad told me the clinic had made a mistake and that the embryos would be destroyed unless we transferred them. He said Marissa agreed to be a surrogate.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
Sebastian looked away.
“That was not part of the surrogacy,” Valerie said.
“No.”
“How long?”
“Eleven months.”
The answer landed without surprise. Surprise required some remaining trust.
“Why did she think you would leave with her?”
“I told her what she needed to hear.”
Valerie turned toward him. “That sentence may be the most honest thing you have ever said.”
He stepped between her and the door. “I was trying to keep the company alive. If it collapsed, thousands of people would lose jobs.”
“You gambled their jobs long before you forged my name.”
“It was supposed to be temporary. Once the contract came through, we would repay everything.”
“And the twenty-million-dollar life insurance policy?”
He went pale.
Valerie watched him understand that the storage unit had been found.
“I never intended to hurt you.”
“But you prepared to profit if someone did.”
He lowered his voice. “There are things about your mother you do not know.”
“Do not use her to save yourself.”
“She financed Dad years ago. Quietly. Their relationship was not only business.”
Valerie’s anger paused.
Sebastian continued quickly. “The contact on Mom’s phone may not be fake. Elena Reyes used proxies. She had people who kept working after she died.”
“My mother did not fake her death.”
“I did not say she did.”
“What are you saying?”
“That someone is protecting her system. Someone who believes you are not capable of controlling it.”
Before Valerie could answer, Naomi called from the hall.
They had traced the encrypted number.
It belonged to a secure line leased by Reyes Meridian Logistics, a dormant subsidiary Valerie had never heard of. The lease had been renewed every year since Elena’s death by an authorized officer named Gabriel Reyes.
Valerie had no brother, uncle, or cousin by that name.
Naomi handed her a scanned corporate filing.
The signature authorizing the renewal matched the final upward curl on the forged mansion waiver.
May you like
The person who had forged Valerie’s name was not imitating Valerie.
He was imitating someone else in her family.
