Chapter 6
Richard got out of the car and saw Priya’s vehicle behind mine.
Mom stayed by the study door. I could hear him unlocking the front entrance, then his footsteps in the hall.
“What’s going on?” he called.
Priya asked the court officer to stand with her. She met Richard before he reached the study.
“Mrs. Vale invited us in,” she said. “We’re documenting records relevant to the court order.”
Richard looked past her at the open desk.
“Margaret,” he said. “You gave them my key?”
“It’s my house too.”
He turned to me. “You put her up to this.”
“I asked her what she signed.”
Richard took one step into the room. The officer moved into his path.
“Please give us space to finish,” the officer said.
For years, Richard had won arguments by making the other person feel unreasonable for speaking. I watched him try to decide whom to use that voice on. Then his phone rang. He glanced at the screen and silenced it.
“I want an inventory of everything you remove,” he said.
“You’ll receive one,” Priya replied.
He looked at Mom again. “We should talk.”
“We will,” she said. “With my own attorney present.”
Richard’s expression changed. It was brief, but I saw it.
Mom saw it too.
On the drive away, she called her sister and asked to stay with her. I followed her car to make sure she got there. Aunt Rachel met us at the door and pulled Mom inside.
I could not fix what had happened between us in that driveway. Still, I was relieved to see her go somewhere Richard could not shut a door and speak for her.
The next morning, Priya met Colin Price at his attorney’s office. She had asked me to wait until his lawyer agreed I could be there.
Colin looked worse than he had at the factory. His jacket hung loose at the shoulders.
“I was told North Quay supplied parts,” he said. “Richard said we needed a separate company to buy them quickly.”
“Did it?” Priya asked.
“Some parts. Not the machines on those invoices.”
“Who approved the payments?”
Colin rubbed his hands together. “I did. Richard signed off on the invoices.”
Priya placed a bank statement in front of him. “North Quay is registered in your name.”
“He set it up that way. I agreed.” Colin’s voice cracked. “I took a salary from it. I won’t pretend I didn’t.”
“Where did the rest go?”
Colin looked at his attorney before answering. “To Richard’s personal accounts. He told me the company owed him for years of management.”
I felt sick.
“You watched him tell everyone we were broke,” I said.
Colin met my eyes. “I did.”
He turned back to Priya. “There’s more. The signature on the trust amendment came from a scan Richard kept in the office. I saw the draft.”
“Did you see who signed it?”
“No. But the notary entry was made after the date on the document. I have the email where Richard told me to send it back for correction.”
Priya asked his attorney for copies. She did not promise Colin protection from what he had done.
That afternoon, the neutral manager reviewed payroll, customer orders, and the factory schedule. The company was strained, but it could keep operating if its money stopped leaving through North Quay. Arthur’s bid remained in escrow, untouched.
I told Maria what we had learned.
She sat on a bench outside the factory and stared across the parking lot.
“Your father used to say bad numbers always have a story,” she said. “I wish I’d pushed harder when I first saw them.”
“You pushed. You sent me that photo.”
“I sent it when I thought Richard might empty the room. I should have called sooner.”
I knew how that regret felt. I sat beside her until the afternoon shift arrived.
On Friday, Priya presented Colin’s documents to the judge. Richard’s attorney challenged Colin’s motives, pointing to the money he had taken. Priya did not argue that Colin was innocent. She showed how the invoices, bank transfers, and warehouse records matched.
The judge continued the asset restrictions and removed Richard’s authority to act for the family trust while the signature was examined. A separate investigation into the company payments had begun.
Outside the courthouse, reporters called my name. I had never had a camera pointed at me before.
“Is your stepfather going to prison?” one asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “The employees are getting paid this week. That’s what I can tell you.”
A woman pushed through the group. It was Denise.
She touched my arm. “I went to my appointment.”
I turned fully toward her.
“The fund paid,” she said. “They’re scheduling the next one.”
I wanted to ask a hundred questions, but she was smiling and tired, and I knew she needed to get home.
Then Priya came down the courthouse steps.
“The document examiner has preliminary findings,” she said.
Richard stopped a few feet away to listen.
Priya kept her eyes on me.
“Your signature was reproduced from an older company form. The examiner also found an impression beneath the notary seal.” She took a breath. “It belongs to a different document, signed on a different day.”
May you like
Richard’s attorney guided him away before he could say anything.
I watched him go, remembering every time he had told me I had no proof.
