Chapter 6 - The Second Betrayal
By midnight, the mansion no longer felt like a home.
Security officers escorted Adrian from the property. Celeste was given twenty minutes to collect personal belongings from the dressing room while Mrs. Dawson observed.
Richard sat in his study with Eleanor and Daniel Mercer.
Daniel had been the Whitmore family attorney for more than three decades. He was a quiet man with tired eyes and a habit of reading every document twice.
He listened to the recording, then asked Richard to open the secure financial portal for the family trust.
Several files were missing.
Others had been altered.
Daniel examined a recent authorization form.
“Did you sign this?”
Richard studied the page.
“It resembles my signature.”
“That was not my question.”
“No.”
Daniel turned the screen toward Eleanor. The form approved the movement of four million dollars into a development company called Northstar Strategic Holdings.
“Have you heard of Northstar?” Daniel asked.
Richard shook his head.
Daniel began searching corporate records through his legal database.
The company had been formed eighteen months earlier.
Its registered manager was an attorney in Delaware.
The attorney represented Adrian Vale.
Richard leaned back in his chair.
“Freeze everything connected to it.”
“I’ll request an emergency order,” Daniel said. “But we need to determine how much access Adrian had.”
“All of it.”
“Why?”
“Because I trusted him.”
The simple answer seemed to wound Richard more than any accusation could have.
Eleanor sat beside him.
“When did he begin handling your personal accounts?”
“After your mother became ill. He said he wanted to reduce the pressure on me.”
Daniel looked up.
“Did Celeste ever bring documents to you for signature?”
“Regularly.”
“Did she explain them?”
“She said they were foundation approvals, property renewals or household accounts.”
Daniel removed his glasses.
“We may be dealing with fraud extending back several years.”
Richard looked toward the dark window.
“I should have seen it.”
Eleanor knew that blaming him would be easy. Richard had ignored warnings. He had allowed Celeste to isolate him. He had permitted Adrian to control too much.
But trust was not a crime.
Exploiting it was.
“You saw what they wanted you to see,” she said.
Richard turned toward her.
“And what did I refuse to see about you?”
Eleanor did not answer.
A knock sounded at the door.
Mrs. Dawson entered holding a sealed envelope.
“We found this behind the lower drawer in Mrs. Whitmore’s dressing room.”
Daniel opened it.
Inside were copies of emails supposedly sent by Eleanor to Celeste over the previous two years.
The messages were cruel. They accused Celeste of marrying for money and demanded that she keep Richard from visiting Chicago.
Eleanor read them twice.
“I never wrote these.”
Richard’s face became pale.
“Celeste showed me some of them.”
“She forged them.”
Richard stared at the papers.
For two years, he had believed his daughter wanted distance from him.
For two years, Eleanor had believed her father had chosen not to call.
May you like
The affair had broken his marriage.
The forged messages broke something even deeper.
