Chapter 4 - The Impossible SignatureVictoria stared at her father for several seconds.
“Tell me you didn’t do it.”
Charles raised his hands.
“I executed the will my mother gave me.”
Samuel placed both versions on the table.
“Then we have a problem.”
“What problem?”
“Eleanor was hospitalized when she supposedly signed the second one.”
“She was capable of signing.”
“Not on the date written here.”
Samuel pulled out a medical certificate.
“She was under deep sedation.”
Charles clenched his jaw.
Claire realized this was no longer a story about a necklace.
It was a multibillion-dollar fraud.
Victoria stepped toward her father.
“Did you forge Grandma’s signature?”
“No.”
“Look at me.”
Charles raised his voice.
“No!”
Victoria stood still.
The silence that followed was worse than the shout.
Samuel placed the old tape into a player the bank kept for historical archives.
A weak voice filled the room.
It was Eleanor Whitmore.
“Samuel, if you’re listening to this with Rose’s granddaughter, then you finally found her.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I failed my sister.”
The recording continued.
Eleanor explained how her father had forced Rose to surrender the necklace by threatening to take Sarah away.
Afterward, Richard Whitmore had continued hiding Rose’s existence.
“My son Charles knows part of this story. I don’t know what he will do after I die. That is why I have deposited an independent copy of my will here.”
Victoria began crying silently.
Charles no longer looked furious.
He looked defeated.
But then came the sentence that changed everything.
“If Charles tries to invalidate it, find Thomas Hale. He has the proof.”
The recording ended.
Claire asked:
“Who is Thomas Hale?”
Samuel looked confused.
“He was the family’s former head of security.”
“Is he alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Victoria pulled out her phone.
“We’ll find out.”
Charles walked toward the door.
This time, no one stopped him.
Before he left, Claire spoke.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
He turned.
“My mother worked as a nurse for thirty-five years. She died still paying a mortgage.”
Charles lowered his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire clenched her teeth.
“I don’t want you to be sorry.”
She lifted the will.
“I want to know whether you knew she was an heir while she continued living as though she had nothing.”
May you like
Charles did not answer.
And that absence of an answer was enough.
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