Chapter 4 - THE BLUE FOLDER
Eleanor was awake when Nathaniel reached her hospital room.
Her left wrist was in a cast. A bandage covered the cut near her temple. She looked smaller against the white pillows than Nathaniel remembered.
He took her uninjured hand.
“I'm here, Mother.”
Eleanor studied his face.
“Did Rose catch me?”
“Yes.”
“Good girl.”
Nathaniel swallowed. “What happened?”
His mother looked toward the closed door.
“Is Victoria here?”
“No.”
“Keep it that way.”
He waited.
Eleanor took a slow breath. “She asked me to sign a document before the ceremony. She said it was a routine authorization so you could focus on the wedding.”
“What kind of authorization?”
“A temporary transfer of my voting authority in the company.”
Nathaniel stiffened.
His late father had placed a controlling block of Callaway Holdings shares in a family trust. Eleanor served as trustee while Nathaniel held the executive position. The arrangement had been designed to protect the company from a hostile takeover during a period of transition.
“If you signed it, who would receive the authority?” he asked.
“Victoria.”
“Why would you agree?”
“I didn't. I told her I needed my attorney to review it.”
Eleanor's eyes filled.
“She became angry. She said you had promised her that the company would belong to both of you after the wedding.”
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
Nathaniel's hand tightened around hers.
“Did she push you?”
Eleanor looked away.
“She grabbed my arm. I tried to step back. My heel caught against the base of the railing.”
“Did she push?”
“I felt both her hands against my shoulders.”
Nathaniel stood so abruptly that the chair scraped the floor.
“Why didn't you tell the police?”
“I will. I wanted you to hear it first.”
He closed his eyes.
For two hours, he had watched his bride stand beside the railing and call the fall an accident. He had wanted to believe there was some explanation. A misunderstanding. A moment of panic.
But his mother had just described hands against her shoulders.
A knock came at the door.
Daniel entered with a clear evidence sleeve. Inside was the folded blue paper Rose had found.
“We recovered the rest of the folder from the rooftop,” he said. “The pages were scattered near the table. One page is missing.”
Eleanor nodded. “The signature page.”
Nathaniel stared at her.
“Did you sign it?”
“No.”
“Then why take it?”
“Because Victoria wanted to make it look as if I had.”
Daniel placed another photograph on the bedside table. It showed a document with Eleanor's signature at the bottom.
Nathaniel leaned forward.
“That looks like your signature.”
“It isn't.”
His mother pointed to the last letter of her surname. “I stopped making the final stroke like that years ago. Your father used to tease me about it.”
Daniel examined the photograph.
“It's a convincing copy.”
“Who prepared it?” Nathaniel asked.
Eleanor's expression darkened.
“Marcus Bell.”
Nathaniel looked at Daniel.
“Get him here.”
“He's not answering his phone.”
“Then find him.”
Eleanor gripped her son's hand.
“Don't confront him alone. If Victoria and Marcus are working together, there may be others.”
Nathaniel nodded.
Then she said something that made him stop.
“Your father knew Marcus was dishonest. He kept a file on him.”
“Where?”
“Inside the old library desk. A false bottom beneath the center drawer.”
Nathaniel remembered the desk. He had inherited it after his father's death but rarely used it.
“What is in the file?”
“I don't know everything. Your father told me that if anything happened to him, I should give it to you.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because he said to wait until I had proof.”
Nathaniel looked at the bandage on her forehead.
“Now we have proof.”
May you like
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“Be careful, Nathaniel. This wedding was not the beginning of their plan.”
