Chapter 13 - THE SEVENTY-TWO-HOUR DEADLINE
Police questioned the nurse.
Her name was Dana Pierce.
At first, she denied everything.
Then investigators showed her the payment.
She asked for a lawyer.
Within hours, Victor disappeared.
Vivienne vanished from surveillance.
A judge issued warrants.
Gabriel increased security around the estate.
Elena hated the guards.
But she understood.
Then Elijah discovered something worse.
Vale Meridian Holdings was scheduled to transfer sixty million dollars to an offshore account in seventy-two hours.
The authorization came from Victor.
If the money moved, recovering it could take years.
Elijah called an emergency board session.
Victor did not attend.
Vivienne appeared by video through counsel.
She claimed Victor was acting independently.
Nobody believed her.
Elena now controlled Cassandra’s forfeited voting interest temporarily.
That gave her enough leverage to freeze several accounts.
But the sixty million transfer had been structured through an older authorization.
They needed a court order.
Seventy-two hours.
That was the new clock.
Cassandra offered to testify.
Gabriel looked at her.
“Why?”
She almost laughed.
“Because I finally understand something.”
“What?”
“Mom doesn’t care whether I lose.”
“She only cares whether she wins.”
That realization hurt her.
Elena recognized it.
Sometimes the worst part of betrayal was discovering you were never as important to the betrayer as you believed.
The next morning, Cassandra met prosecutors.
She admitted knowing about the forged postnup.
She admitted participating in the plan to pressure Elena.
She admitted destroying the keepsakes.
She did not excuse herself.
In exchange for cooperation, prosecutors did not promise immunity.
Cassandra signed anyway.
Then Dana Pierce began talking.
She said Victor instructed her to replace one of Theodore’s pills with another medication.
She refused at first.
Vivienne doubled the payment.
Dana changed the medication bottle.
But she claimed she did not administer the fatal dose.
“Who did?”
The investigator asked.
Dana looked terrified.
“His daughter.”
Vivienne.
Theodore’s own daughter had been in his bedroom the night before he died.
Vivienne’s lawyers said it was impossible.
Then estate security recovered archived footage.
A woman wearing a hood entered through the service corridor at 11:14 p.m.
Her face was not visible.
But she wore a distinctive emerald ring.
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Gabriel knew the ring.
Vivienne had worn it in every family portrait.
