Chapter 5 - WHAT I SIGNED
Nicholas arrived wearing a suit I had paid for and an expression he had practiced.
“Vivian says you’re accusing her of things.”
“Did you program my bedroom lamp?”
His gaze slid toward Daniel.
“Can we talk as family?”
“We are talking.”
“It was a safety feature.”
“What danger required waking me every forty minutes?”
“Vale recommended checks after the accident.”
“Show me the recommendation.”
He opened his mouth, then shut it.
Three years earlier, my car had hit a concrete divider in heavy rain.
I survived with a concussion, fractured ribs, and a patch of memory I couldn’t recover.
My sister took over the house.
My brother took over several company accounts.
I took pills and apologized for being difficult.
“What else did you take over?” I asked.
“Don’t do this.”
Daniel placed a printed log between us.
Nicholas stared at the dates.
“You changed the schedule last Tuesday,” I said.
“Because you were wandering at night.”
“I was walking around my own house because I couldn’t sleep.”
He stood.
“You don’t know what it was like taking care of you.”
“No,” I said. “Apparently I don’t.”
After he left, I called my outside attorney, Elaine Brooks.
She met me in a conference room away from headquarters.
I brought the lab report, access logs, and a stack of documents I had signed while exhausted.
One was a temporary proxy authorizing Vivian to vote my shares during medically documented incapacity.
It required a fresh independent assessment and formal notice before activation.
Another authorized Nicholas to oversee a waterfront redevelopment subsidiary.
Elaine circled a payment to Harbor Renewal Partners.
“Who owns this vendor?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a problem.”
There were monthly payments disguised as land-option fees.
No corresponding property appeared in the project file.
“Your insomnia may have made it easier to keep you away from the books,” she said.
“And the board meeting?”
“If that proxy becomes active, your sister could control tomorrow’s asset vote.”
I looked at the attached agenda.
A waterfront sale to Harbor Renewal Partners had been added that morning.
Elaine opened the ownership disclosure from the vendor file.
The registered manager was an accountant I didn’t recognize.
The beneficial-owner field contained a familiar name.
Nicholas Moretti.
Then she turned over the last page.
Beneath his name was a second signature.
May you like
Mine.
Dated the night of my accident.
