Chapter 4 - THE PAPER IN MY PURSE
The board froze the proposed sale and suspended Robert from venue access.
Chloe accused Alexander of choosing me over the family company.
“You married a woman who hates everything we built,” she said during the emergency meeting.
I had once loved Vale House.
I had coordinated charity dinners there, restored neglected event rooms, and spent nights correcting details Robert ignored. That was where I met Alexander.
Chloe had never forgiven the staff member who became her sister-in-law.
A forensic examiner found that Alexander’s signature on the authorization came from a high-resolution scan.
The source document had been printed from our home office two months earlier.
Only Alexander and I possessed keys to the house.
Chloe had stayed there while we traveled for Lily’s birthday weekend.
Alexander admitted she had used the printer.
He had not checked what she copied.
I made my first serious mistake that night.
I called Chloe.
“You used our house to steal his signature.”
She laughed.
“You threw yourself into a fountain and now you’re inventing crimes.”
“You watched Robert push me.”
“Prove it.”
The call lasted less than a minute.
It was long enough to warn her that investigators had traced the signature source.
By the time police obtained access to her cloud storage, an entire folder of scanned family documents had been deleted.
Detective Grant did not hide her anger.
“You are a witness, Mrs. Vale. Stop trying to become an investigator.”
I apologized.
The apology did not recover the files.
Alexander and I returned home to find the office computer missing.
No door was forced.
Our alarm had been disarmed with his personal code.
He stared at the empty desk.
“I gave that code to Chloe when she stayed here.”
“You never changed it.”
“I forgot.”
His carelessness had provided the material used against us.
Mine had given Chloe time to erase it.
That evening Lily woke crying.
She remembered something else from the terrace.
Before Robert pushed me, Chloe had touched his sleeve and whispered:
May you like
“Make sure Emma’s bag stays near the fountain.”
My fall, the missing purse, and the forged papers had always belonged to the same plan.
