Chapter 9 – THE BILLION-DOLLAR ULTIMATUM
At 11:40 p.m., Eleanor arrived at an abandoned records warehouse near the Stamford waterfront.
Samuel accompanied her.
Police investigators monitored the meeting from nearby after receiving information about Victoria’s threat.
Inside, Victoria waited beside a metal table.
The stolen ledger lay beneath her hand.
“Sign the withdrawal,” Victoria demanded, “and you can keep your little family reunion.”
Eleanor stared at the woman who had taken almost everything from her.
“You don’t own my family.”
Victoria laughed.
“I built this company while you were sitting in a hospital!”
“You stole the company while I was imprisoned.”
Victoria slammed the ledger onto the table.
“I gave Richard everything!”
“You gave him a lie.”
Eleanor moved closer.
“You convinced him his mother was dead. You took his sister. And you made him believe his inheritance belonged to you.”
Victoria’s composure finally cracked.
“I DESERVED THAT MONEY!”
Samuel quietly placed a second folder on the table.
Inside were certified trust records, financial audits and the court’s recent findings.
“The ledger you stole is evidence,” he said. “But it is not the only surviving record. The trust’s ownership does not vanish because one book disappears.”
Victoria stared at him.
For the first time, she understood that destroying documents would not destroy Eleanor’s rights.
Outside, police vehicles blocked the exits.
Victoria snatched up the ledger and rushed toward the loading dock.
She was stopped before reaching her car.
As officers detained her, she screamed at Richard, who had arrived with Sophie and Grace.
“I MADE YOU RICH!”
Richard looked at his mother.
Then at his sister.
Then back at his wife.
“You made us strangers.”
Victoria was taken away.
Eleanor finally held the ledger that had nearly cost her everything.
But Samuel noticed something tucked inside its back cover.
A handwritten letter, dated 1999.
It was addressed to Richard.
And the signature belonged to Eleanor.
Richard opened the letter, read the first line and began to cry: “My son, if you are reading this, I may already be gone. There is one truth about our fortune you must know.”