Chapter 14 - NO ONE SIGNS
Martin looked at me as though I were an employee who had missed a deadline.
“Claire. You should have taken the settlement.”
“You should have picked someone who didn’t read invoices.”
His expression hardened.
Luca shifted beside me.
I touched his arm.
Stay.
Martin pointed at the folder.
“Those are company records.”
“Then you won’t mind investigators reading them.”
Vanessa went still.
Ryan looked toward the door.
Martin noticed.
“You brought police?”
I didn’t answer.
He lunged for the folder.
Ryan pulled back.
Pages scattered across the concrete.
Vanessa grabbed the backup drive.
I caught her wrist before she could drop it into an open floor trench beside the table.
She twisted hard.
Pain shot up my arm.
“Let go,” she hissed.
“You first.”
Luca stepped between Martin and me as footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Loud voices.
Clear commands.
“Hands where we can see them.”
Everything stopped.
Not gracefully.
Not all at once.
Martin kept talking.
Vanessa kept saying there had been a misunderstanding.
Ryan stood with a page clenched in one hand.
An investigator took the drive from Vanessa.
Another separated us.
My wrist throbbed.
I stared at the paper on the floor.
My signature.
Copied.
Used.
Weaponized.
For days, that shape had felt like a noose around my name.
Now it was evidence in someone else’s gloved hand.
Ryan turned toward me.
“Tell them I didn’t threaten Natalie.”
“Tell them yourself.”
“I didn’t know about your dad’s house until Martin—”
“You brought him the papers.”
His mouth opened.
Closed.
For the first time, no explanation came out.
Vanessa looked at Luca.
“You’re really going to let them do this?”
He stared at her.
“You did this.”
An investigator asked me to step outside.
Sunlight hit my face so hard I blinked.
My phone showed two missed calls from Mom.
I called back immediately.
“Dad?”
“He’s fine,” she said. “He’s sitting here being impossible.”
Dad’s voice came through from the background.
“Ask if she ate.”
I bent forward and started crying.
Not because it was over.
Because, for one minute, no one I loved was in danger.
Elena called while I was still outside.
“The board suspended the sale.”
I pressed the phone to my ear.
“What about Ashford?”
“The ownership records and transfer schedule are now part of the investigation.”
“And me?”
A pause.
Then, “Westbridge has withdrawn its accusation.”
I closed my eyes.
Luca stood a few feet away, waiting.
Before I could speak to him, Ryan was escorted through the service entrance.
He stopped when he saw me.
“Claire. One thing.”
May you like
I almost turned away.
Then he said, “There’s another account.”
