Chapter 5

The west parlor had been converted into a makeshift board anteroom. Julian Reyes stood by the fireplace, his tie loosened, his face the color of wet newspaper. When I walked in with the notary log in my hand, he looked at me the way a man looks at a door he thought he had locked.

“You,” I said. “You signed out the stamp at 11:42 p.m. three weeks ago.”

Julian’s mouth opened. Closed. Helena stood behind me, flanked by two board members she had summoned from the gala. Corinne and Daphne hovered near the windows. Vivian, notably, was absent.

“Tamsin,” Julian said, “you don’t understand.”

“Then explain it.”

He looked at Helena. She gave a tiny shake of her head. That was all the confirmation I needed.

“You notarized a guarantee with my signature,” I said. “You knew I never signed it. You knew it was for the sale of my father’s shipyard.”

“She threatened me.” His voice cracked. “Helena found out about the legal fees I moved from the company’s litigation account into my brother’s defense fund. She said she would report me, ruin my daughter’s college applications, make sure I never practiced law again. She told me to notarize one document and the debt would disappear.”

Helena laughed. “Julian, you are a grown man. If you committed a crime, that is your shame, not mine.”

“You dictated the wording,” he said. “You gave me the account number. You told me the sale had to close before the anniversary gala.”

The room went still. One of the board members, Mr. Adair, a retired admiral who had known my father, turned to Helena. “Is this true?”

“It is a desperate man trying to save himself,” Helena said. “And an adopted daughter trying to steal a company she was never meant to inherit. We have a resignation letter. We have a criminal complaint. We have the board majority. Julian’s confession under pressure means nothing.”

She reached for the resignation letter in my hand. I pulled it back.

“This is forged too,” I said.

“Prove it.”

I looked at Julian. “You notarized my signature before. Did you also witness this resignation?”

Julian’s gaze dropped to the floor. “No.”

Helena’s jaw tightened. “He’s lying.”

“Then let the handwriting experts decide,” I said. “Let the board secretary verify the trust. Let the police check the notary log. You wanted a board meeting, Helena. You’ll get one.”

For a second, I thought she might lunge at me. Instead, she smoothed her emerald gown and smiled at the board members. “Fine. Ten o’clock tomorrow morning. We will vote to remove her, void the trust, and cooperate fully with the criminal complaint. I still control Daphne and Corinne. I still control this board.”

Daphne looked away. Corinne crossed her arms. Neither said a word.

I left the parlor with the forged resignation letter and the notary log. I had Julian’s admission, but it was thin. Helena would call it coercion. I needed the rest of my father’s trust file. I needed proof she had done more than lie-that she had stolen, and that the poison pill inside Marcus’s trust could finally bite.