Chapter 8 - the attorney in the study
Harold had arrived at eight fifty.
He had expected a signature.
Nothing more.
That was what he later claimed.
According to Harold, Gregory had told him Charlotte understood the financial crisis.
According to Harold, Cynthia had assured him the family had reached an agreement.
According to Harold, he had no idea Gregory would use violence.
Some of that was true.
Most was not.
Because inside Harold's leather portfolio were three separate documents.
The first transferred Charlotte's beneficial interest.
The second ratified the unauthorized loans.
The third was more disturbing.
Petition for Emergency Temporary Guardianship.
The petition alleged Charlotte Palmer was mentally unstable, financially irrational, and at risk of self-harm.
It had been drafted three weeks before the false medical report was sent to the military.
Harold had prepared it.
Gregory had signed an affidavit.
Cynthia had signed another.
Their plan had layers.
If Charlotte voluntarily signed, they won cleanly.
If she refused but could be discredited, Gregory could seek emergency authority over her finances.
If she commissioned before either happened, Edward's protective clause activated and Gregory risked losing control of his own shares.
Everything depended on preventing the vesting event.
At nine thirty-one, Harold sat in the study and listened as voices rose outside.
He heard Charlotte accuse Gregory of forgery.
He heard Gregory order her to hand over the trust certificate.
Then he heard Cynthia say the one sentence Harold would later remember in nightmares.
"Gregory, do not do anything stupid."
Silence.
Then Charlotte screamed.
Harold stood.
Something heavy struck the stairs.
Then the floor.
Harold opened the door.
Charlotte lay at the bottom of the staircase.
Blood spread beneath her leg.
Gregory held the crowbar.
Cynthia stood frozen above them.
Harold's first emotion should have been horror.
Instead, it was panic about the deadline.
Which was why he said the words that destroyed him.
"Gregory, you idiot. She still hasn't signed the transfer papers."
Charlotte heard every word.
So did her watch.
The emergency connection transmitted the audio.
Gregory turned toward Harold.
"Close the door."
Harold did not.
"We need an ambulance."
"No."
"She may have broken her spine."
"Then she is in no condition to sign."
Cynthia came down the staircase.
"What are we supposed to do?"
Harold stared at her.
"You call an ambulance."
Gregory stepped closer.
"No one calls anyone until this is handled."
Charlotte dragged herself slightly across the floor.
Gregory saw the movement.
"Stop."
She did.
Harold looked at the blood.
"This has gone too far."
Charlotte almost laughed.
Too far.
Apparently forging signatures, stealing millions, falsifying medical reports, and preparing a fraudulent guardianship petition had not been too far.
A crowbar was Harold's moral boundary.
Charlotte whispered, "What did you steal from me?"
Gregory looked down at her.
"Do not start."
"Forty-six million?"
Harold's face changed.
Charlotte noticed.
She continued.
"Or more?"
Gregory stepped closer.
"Be quiet."
Charlotte looked at Harold.
"The collateral was one hundred twenty million, wasn't it?"
Harold said nothing.
Gregory snapped, "Harold."
Too late.
Charlotte had seen the answer.
She forced herself to breathe through the pain.
"Why does my signature matter if you already forged it?"
Harold rubbed a hand over his face.
Gregory said, "Do not answer her."
Charlotte's watch vibrated faintly.
Still connected.
Someone was listening.
She needed time.
So she kept asking.
"Because Grandpa's clause triggers tomorrow?"
Harold looked at Gregory.
"She knows everything."
"Not everything."
Charlotte's eyes moved toward him.
"What don't I know?"
Gregory crouched.
"You know enough to understand that if you cooperate, there can still be a future for everyone."
"My legs don't move."
"They may."
Charlotte stared at him.
Her own father had just spoken about permanent paralysis as if it were an inconvenience in contract negotiations.
She felt something inside her go cold.
"You hit me."
"You forced a confrontation."
Harold whispered, "Gregory, stop talking."
Charlotte almost smiled.
"Why? Because you're worried someone's listening?"
Three faces changed.
Tiny changes.
But Charlotte saw all of them.
Gregory immediately grabbed her wrist.
She cried out.
He saw the watch.
His eyes widened.
"What did you do?"
Charlotte jerked her arm away.
Gregory seized the watch strap.
Before he could tear it off, a distant siren sounded.
Then another.
Cynthia turned toward the window.
"Oh my God."
Harold went pale.
Gregory ripped the watch from Charlotte's wrist and threw it across the foyer.
It shattered against the wall.
But the sirens were already growing louder.
"Fix this," Gregory said.
Harold stared at him.
"How?"
"You are the lawyer."
"I cannot legally explain a woman at the bottom of a staircase with an impact injury from a crowbar."
Cynthia suddenly moved.
She picked up the crowbar using the edge of her dress.
Charlotte watched.
"What are you doing?"
Cynthia looked at Gregory.
"We say it fell."
Harold stared at her.
"From where?"
"The maintenance shelf."
"There is no maintenance shelf."
"Then we make one."
Charlotte realized her mother had stopped being shocked.
She was helping.
Again.
Cynthia hurried toward a storage alcove.
Gregory turned to Harold.
"Get the papers out of sight."
Harold put the documents behind his back.
Charlotte watched him.
"Those are the originals?"
No one answered.
She looked at the garment bag lying three feet away.
The zipper had split when she fell.
Her commissioning documents had scattered partly beneath it.
One paper from Harold's stack had also slipped loose when he moved.
It lay near Charlotte's right hand.
Harold did not notice.
Charlotte did.
She stretched her fingers.
Almost.
Her nails scraped the edge.
The front door shook under a heavy knock.
"Columbus Police."
Gregory froze.
Charlotte reached again.
Her fingers closed around the paper.
She dragged it beneath her body.
The knocking became pounding.
"Open the door."
Cynthia whispered, "What do we do?"
Gregory looked at Charlotte.
Then at Harold.
May you like
Then at the front door.
For the first time in Charlotte's life, Gregory Palmer had no plan.
