Chapter 7 - THE SIGNATURE ON THE PRENUP
Adrian's attorneys confirmed the signature was forged.
That didn't solve the problem.
The document had been notarized.
Filed.
Witnessed by two Valenti employees.
One was Victor Hale.
The other was dead.
Gerald Pierce, Adrian's longtime corporate counsel, had died of a stroke six months earlier.
Convenient.
Adrian could challenge the prenup.
Eventually.
But Camilla had structured the disputed shares through a temporary control provision that could paralyze three companies during litigation.
Hundreds of employees would be affected.
Contracts could default.
Loans could accelerate.
Vivian wasn't simply stealing money.
She was holding thousands of livelihoods hostage.
“What do we do?” I asked.
Adrian looked at me.
“We?”
I folded my arms.
“You dragged me into a bank vault at two in the morning.”
“You refused to give me the key.”
“And I was right.”
A tiny smile appeared.
The first I'd seen in days.
“Yes.”
Then it disappeared.
“We prove the notarization fraud before the wedding.”
“How?”
“Find the notary.”
Her name was Caroline Ames.
She had resigned from the firm two weeks earlier.
No forwarding address.
Her phone was disconnected.
Rachel found the clue.
Not me.
Not Adrian.
Rachel.
She remembered treating Caroline at Valenti House eight months earlier after the woman fainted during a meeting.
Caroline had mentioned a daughter attending Northwestern.
By that evening, Adrian's investigators located her.
Caroline wasn't hiding from Adrian.
She was hiding from Vivian.
She agreed to meet.
At a diner outside Evanston, she told us everything.
Gerald Pierce had asked her to notarize a stack of documents already signed by Adrian.
She refused because Adrian wasn't present.
Victor Hale threatened her job.
Then Vivian appeared.
Caroline still refused.
Three days later, photographs of Caroline's daughter leaving a bar with drugs appeared in her mailbox.
“Were they real?” I asked.
“No.”
Manipulated.
“But I panicked.”
She notarized the signature.
“Can you testify?”
Caroline looked terrified.
Then she looked at me.
“Would you?”
The question surprised me.
“Would I what?”
“Testify against people like this if you were me?”
I thought about Vivian raising her hand.
Eleanor gripping my apron.
My apartment torn apart.
“Yes.”
Caroline studied my face.
“Aren't you scared?”
“Terrified.”
“Then why?”
I thought about all the excuses I'd made before I finally stepped between Vivian and Eleanor.
“Because being scared doesn't get better when you obey it.”
Caroline agreed.
The prenup was collapsing.
But that evening Vivian called Adrian.
He put the phone on speaker.
“You've been busy,” she said.
“So have you.”
“You found Caroline.”
Adrian didn't answer.
Vivian laughed.
“You always were predictable when angry.”
“Come home.”
“Why?”
“We're getting married tomorrow.”
I stared at him.
So did Eleanor.
Vivian went silent.
Then:
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“You still want to marry me?”
“No.”
Adrian's voice was ice.
“But I want everyone who helped you to believe I do.”
Vivian understood.
“You're recording this.”
“Probably.”
She hung up.
I stared at Adrian.
“What was that?”
“Pressure.”
“You just told the woman trying to steal your company that you're setting a trap.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“I told Camilla.”
I understood.
Vivian wasn't the target of that phone call.
Adrian wanted Vivian frightened enough to call the person behind her.
Thirty-one minutes later, surveillance caught Vivian meeting Camilla in an underground parking garage.
Victor Hale was there too.
And this time—
they talked.
May you like
Every word was recorded.
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