Chapter 5 - THE FORTUNE STOLEN WHILE I WAS RUNNING
Ninety million dollars.
I stared at the number until the digits blurred.
For seven years, I'd lived in cramped apartments, worked double shifts, skipped meals, and counted coins before buying groceries.
Now an attorney was telling me someone had used my name to move a fortune.
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because the alternative was screaming.
"That signature isn't mine."
Rebecca nodded.
"We'll need the original documents examined."
Adrian stood beside the window.
His expression was grim.
"Who prepared the transfer?"
"Conrad Vale's office."
Of course.
I looked toward the forged paperwork.
The signature was close.
Almost convincing.
But the last letter in my surname curved the wrong way.
My mother used to say my handwriting looked like it was running downhill.
This signature looked carefully manufactured.
Then Rebecca opened the original trust agreement.
The money hadn't simply belonged to my mother.
It was connected to a charitable investment program established by Evelyn Cross and Rose Bennett.
The women had worked together in the late 1980s.
They helped create a fund intended to support widows, children, and families affected by violence associated with powerful criminal organizations.
I stared at the pages.
"My mother never told me."
Adrian looked toward me.
"Mine didn't either."
For a moment, we shared the same terrible realization.
Our mothers had been trying to repair damage caused by the men around them.
And someone had stolen the money meant to help the people who suffered.
Rebecca continued.
"Rose was named as a successor custodian."
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"She had responsibility for safeguarding certain records and authorizing changes to protected assets."
My heart tightened.
"And after she died?"
Rebecca turned another page.
"That responsibility appears to have passed to you."
I stared.
"Me?"
She nodded.
"Subject to verification of the original agreement."
I leaned back.
For years, I'd believed my mother left me nothing except her earrings and an old photograph.
Now I was discovering she'd been trying to protect something much bigger than our family.
Then Adrian asked a question.
"Where did Conrad move the money?"
Rebecca opened the transaction report.
A series of companies appeared.
Several had been dissolved.
Others remained active.
One belonged to Vanessa Rainer.
My stomach tightened.
"Dominic's wife?"
Rebecca nodded.
"Through an investment holding company."
I stared.
Vanessa hadn't simply hidden the watch.
She had a financial connection to the money stolen using my identity.
Then Rebecca turned the final page.
A payment authorization.
Seven years earlier, Conrad transferred eight million dollars into Vanessa's company.
The transaction description read:
CLAIRE BENNETT — EXIT ARRANGEMENT.
I stopped breathing.
May you like
Someone had been paid millions when I disappeared.
And Vanessa Rainer had been one of the people who benefited.
Related Stories
