Chapter 16 - The Plan for 11:30
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Whitmore resumed the recording.
Rebecca Sloan’s voice filled the banquet hall.
“Marcella told me the documents had to be completed before Evelyn entered residential care.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Rebecca continued.
“She said once Evelyn was admitted, another certification would establish that she could no longer revoke the power of attorney.”
Harold’s jaw tightened.
The legal strategy was becoming clear.
Get the signature.
Create the medical record.
Move Evelyn into a facility.
Then argue she lacked capacity to challenge either one.
The paperwork would reinforce itself.
A false transfer supported by false medical authority.
A false medical authority supported by Evelyn’s sudden institutionalization.
Marcella had designed a trap where every forged document made the others look believable.
Dominic looked at her.
“You weren’t sending my mother away for a few days.”
Marcella didn’t answer.
“You were trying to make sure nobody listened when she came back.”
Still nothing.
Evelyn’s voice was quiet.
“Did you ever intend to let me come home?”
Marcella looked at her.
Something ugly passed across her face.
Then she said, “You would have been comfortable.”
The room recoiled.
Dominic took one step forward.
Evelyn caught his wrist.
Not again.
Not violence.
Dominic looked down at her hand.
Then back at Marcella.
“You should thank my mother.”
Marcella laughed nervously.
“For what?”
“She keeps stopping me from making your lawyers’ jobs easier.”
Whitmore cleared her throat.
“Let’s keep everybody exactly where they are.”
That brought a few grim smiles.
Then the detective continued the statement.
Rebecca described receiving ten thousand dollars through a consulting company.
Thomas recognized the name immediately.
“Northbridge Advisory.”
Whitmore looked at him.
“That mean something?”
Thomas nodded.
“That’s who paid me.”
Harold searched the state corporate database.
Northbridge Advisory had been created four months earlier.
Its manager was listed as an attorney at Carter & Vale.
The same firm representing the buyer in Marcella’s merger.
Dominic frowned.
“So the buyer knew?”
“Not necessarily,” Harold said. “One attorney could be acting alone.”
Marcella suddenly looked toward the door.
Dominic saw it.
“You’re scared of someone else now.”
She said nothing.
“Who?”
Nothing.
Whitmore’s phone buzzed.
She read a message.
Then looked at Harold.
“Your merger counsel is downstairs.”
Harold frowned.
“At midnight?”
“He says he came voluntarily.”
Marcella whispered something.
Dominic didn’t hear.
“What?”
She looked at him.
“They’re going to blame everything on me.”
Dominic stared.
“They?”
Marcella finally realized she had said too much.
The doors opened.
A man in a navy suit entered with his own attorney.
His name was Preston Vale.
Senior partner.
Merger counsel.
He looked directly at Marcella.
Then at Detective Whitmore.
“I’m here because my firm discovered unauthorized activity by one of our partners.”
Marcella shook her head.
“No.”
Vale placed a sealed packet on the table.
“And because Mrs. Vercetti has been lied to by more people than she knows.”
May you like
👉 Marcella had believed she was the architect of the takeover — but the documents Preston Vale carried suggested someone had been using her greed to engineer an even bigger theft.
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