Chapter 6 - THE COMPANY DEREK WANTED
Bellamy Manufacturing was worth more than I realized.
Much more.
After Mom died, the board began negotiating a potential sale to a national aerospace supplier.
If the deal closed, our shares could be worth nearly thirty million dollars.
Not twelve.
Harold explained it in his office.
“Your mother knew discussions had begun.”
“Did Vanessa?”
“She should not have.”
“Derek?”
“Definitely not.”
Someone had leaked confidential information.
Derek’s proposed agreement suddenly made sense.
If Vanessa controlled both her shares and mine, she could influence whether the family sold.
“He wasn’t trying to inherit me.”
I said.
Harold nodded.
“He may have been trying to control your vote.”
Marissa leaned back.
“And the cannon?”
“Pressure.”
I whispered.
Fear.
Confusion.
Pain.
Then paperwork the next morning.
It was not a perfect plan.
But criminals rarely built perfect plans.
They built plans around what they believed about other people.
Derek believed I would panic.
He believed Vanessa could convince me not to involve police.
He believed our family history would make me doubt myself.
He was almost right.
Harold opened another folder.
“There’s a second problem.”
I was beginning to hate that sentence.
Someone had already submitted a preliminary voting authorization to Bellamy’s corporate counsel.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
I had never seen it before.
“It’s forged.”
Marissa said.
Harold nodded.
The witness signature belonged to Derek.
The document was dated the day before the wedding.
“Why would he file this before the cannon?”
I asked.
“Because maybe the cannon wasn’t meant to make you sign.”
Marissa said.
“Maybe it was meant to make you unavailable long enough for nobody to question a document he had already created.”
The room went silent.
If I had been hospitalized longer, Derek could have claimed I had signed before the wedding.
Vanessa could confirm it.
The board might have accepted the authorization temporarily.
Then Harold noticed something else.
The forged document did not transfer my rights to Vanessa.
It transferred them to a holding company.
North Ash Holdings LLC.
None of us recognized the name.
Marissa searched the state database.
North Ash Holdings had been formed eight months earlier.
Its registered agent was a Columbus attorney named Victor Hale.
Harold went pale.
“You know him?”
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
May you like
Harold stared at the company paperwork.
“He represents the buyer trying to acquire Bellamy Manufacturing.”
