Chapter 20 - northstar
Malcolm attempted to recover immediately.
“I saw the signature,” he said.
“You mentioned Elias before looking closely enough to identify it.”
“Nora, you are searching for conspiracies because you cannot accept that the company has moved beyond you.”
“The company would not exist without the patents I negotiated, the factories I refinanced or the contracts I protected while you appeared at conferences.”
“That was decades ago.”
“Ownership does not expire because a husband becomes embarrassed by his wife.”
Malcolm glanced at Grace’s recorder.
“You are recording this.”
“Yes,” Grace answered.
He left without another word.
The moment the door closed, Nora contacted the board secretary and requested every document referring to Northstar. The secretary claimed there were none.
Twenty minutes later, her access to the corporate archive was suspended.
Malcolm was moving faster now.
Grace’s investigator located Adrian Kell’s last known address, an abandoned townhouse purchased through a company registered in Iceland. The taxes had been paid every year by Northstar.
Inside the public incorporation file, Grace found one unusual provision.
Northstar’s shares could be activated only when two members of the Vale bloodline appeared together before an independent trustee.
“If Elias is alive, he could activate them with you,” Grace said.
“Unless he is working against me.”
Nora thought about the message warning her to protect the vault. It could have come from Elias, but it could just as easily have come from someone using his belongings.
“There may be another family member,” Nora said.
“Your children?”
“Maya and Owen are both descendants of my father.”
That evening, Nora invited her daughter to the lake house.
Maya arrived carrying two phones because Malcolm had recently hired a public-relations team to monitor every family statement.
“Dad says you are trying to destroy him,” Maya said.
“He tried to transfer my voting rights.”
“He says you misunderstood the documents.”
“I did not.”
Nora showed her the Northstar provision but concealed the signature.
Maya studied it in silence.
“Grandfather once mentioned Northstar,” she finally said.
“When?”
“The summer before he died. He gave me a necklace and said I would know when to use it.”
Maya reached beneath her blouse and removed a narrow silver chain.
May you like
A small compass-shaped pendant hung from it.
At the center was a keyhole.
