Chapter 8: The Will
The word sat in the room like something heavy dropped on a glass table.
Julian: Whose will?
Arthur: Your father's.
The version currently on file was submitted fourteen months ago.
Shortly after the previous notary died.
The notary whose credentials were later used to forge Elena's signature.
Julian sat back down.
Julian: My father's will was changed fourteen months ago.
Arthur: The version on file leaves the majority of the estate — the properties, the primary accounts, the controlling shares of the family holdings — to Eleanor.
With a smaller allocation to you, structured through a trust she administers.
Julian: That's not what he told me.
He told me the estate was split equally.
He told me that when I was twenty-two.
He told me again when I got engaged.
Arthur: The version he told you about may be the original.
We don't have a copy of the original yet.
But the paralegal who was removed from the firm — he processed the updated version.
And the irregularity that got him flagged was a discrepancy in the witness signatures.
Elena: The same pattern.
Arthur: Yes.
Thomas: She changed her husband's will.
Arthur: That appears to be what happened.
We don't know yet whether Mr.
Ashford Senior was aware of the change or whether it was done without his knowledge.
He passed away eleven months ago.
Julian: Eleven months ago.
One month after the will was filed.
Nobody said it out loud.
Nobody needed to.
Julian stood up slowly.
He walked to the cabinet near the fireplace, opened it, and took out a bottle.
He poured one glass.
He stood there holding it without drinking.
Julian: She spent thirty years building something.
A position.
A structure.
Control over every person in that house.
And I walked around inside it and called it a family.
Elena: Julian.
Julian: I'm not asking for sympathy.
I'm just — He stopped.
— I'm just saying it out loud.
Because I need to hear myself say it.
Elena: I know.
Julian: My father might not have known what was in his own will when he died.
Elena: We don't know that yet.
Julian: No.
But we will.
He set the glass down without drinking from it and turned back to Arthur.
Julian: What do we do?
Arthur: I've already contacted a probate attorney.
She's reviewing the filed version tonight.
If the signatures are forged, the document is invalid.
The estate reverts to whatever the prior valid will specified.
That process takes time, but it begins now.
Julian: And Eleanor?
Arthur: She's already given a statement implicating Victoria.
If she's connected to the will — and the paralegal will almost certainly give that up in exchange for his own deal — she faces charges on multiple counts.
Fraud.
Forgery.
Potentially more, depending on what the investigation into your father's death determines.
Julian: His death.
Arthur: It will be reviewed.
That's standard when financial fraud is discovered in proximity to a death.
I'm not telling you what the outcome will be.
I'm telling you it will be looked at.
Julian nodded.
His face was very still.
Thomas stood up and walked to Julian.
He stopped in front of him.
Thomas: I know this is not what you expected when you married my daughter.
Julian: No.
Thomas: And I know you are trying to understand how you didn't see it.
Julian: I keep asking myself that.
Thomas: You didn't see it because she didn't want you to.
That's not weakness.
That's what a certain kind of person does.
They build the blindness into the people closest to them.
It's deliberate.
It takes years.
Julian looked at him.
Thomas: You saw it tonight.
That's what matters now.
Julian: Is it enough?
Thomas: It's a start.
Elena came to stand beside her father.
She looked at Julian across the small distance between them.
Elena: We're not done yet.
But we're not where we were this morning either.
Julian: No.
Elena: Come sit down.
Arthur still has things to tell us, and I'd rather hear them together.
Julian crossed the room and sat beside her.
Not across the table.
Beside her.
Arthur opened his folder.
Arthur: There's one more thing.
The anonymous tip that started the police investigation six weeks ago — Detective Harlow said it came from the housekeeper.
But the tip included details that the housekeeper couldn't have known.
Specific details about the prenuptial document.
About the paralegal.
About the notary's credentials.
Julian: Someone else helped her.
Arthur: Yes.
And based on the email address used to send the tip — He looked up.
— it came from inside this house.
Julian and Elena looked at each other.
Arthur: The account was created from a device registered to this address.
Used once.
Never again.
May you like
Julian: Who else has access to this house?
Arthur: That's what we need to find out.
