Chapter 9 - THE WRONG ALLY
Rachel discovered that one of her junior associates had been leaking our meeting schedules.
The associate’s student loans had been paid through a Vance family foundation.
He claimed the payments were scholarships and denied sharing privileged documents.
Server logs showed he downloaded my medical timeline and the draft patent-trust petition.
Rachel fired him and reported the breach.
Our hearing strategy was exposed.
Arthur filed first.
He asked probate court to declare my mother’s trust invalid because she had allegedly surrendered every patent right before creating it.
His evidence included a video of Helen signing documents in a hospital bed.
I watched my mother’s thin hand move across the page.
The recording had no sound.
The camera never showed the page she signed.
A nurse witness stated Helen was alert.
The nurse now worked for Beatrice’s private foundation.
The hospital’s original chart said my mother received heavy pain medication that afternoon.
The timing became crucial.
I wanted to confront the nurse.
Rachel stopped me.
“You have already lost evidence by moving before the process was ready.”
She was right.
My need for action had become a weakness the Vances could predict.
Chloe identified a storage facility Arthur used for inactive research records.
Agents searched it.
The unit was empty except for a damaged laptop and a maternity photograph of me taken without my knowledge.
On the back, Paige had written:
DELIVERY BEFORE BOARD DATE SOLVES BOTH PROBLEMS.
My due date was after the scheduled board vote.
If I delivered early, Julian could register the child’s birth while I was hospitalized and challenge my capacity using the assault, concussion, or medication.
The forged medical proxy from the settlement packet named Beatrice as temporary decision-maker for both me and the baby.
The kick might not have been only rage.
It might have been an attempt to trigger labor.
Dr. Shah documented that possibility medically without claiming Julian’s exact intent.
Then Paige contacted Daniel.
She was alive.
She wanted protection.
She said she possessed the black case.
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Her condition was one demand:
Clara must come alone.
