Chapter 6 - The Red FolderAfter Claire was taken away for questioning, officers closed Daniel’s office and photographed every document inside.
The red folder contained two sets of guardianship papers.
The first set was the version Evelyn had shown Daniel. It granted Claire limited authority to make emergency medical decisions.
The second set looked almost identical, but several pages had been replaced.
Those pages granted Claire control over Millie’s trust, property and inherited company shares if Daniel became “unavailable, impaired or emotionally unfit.”
Daniel stared at the phrase.
“Emotionally unfit?”
Aaron pointed to another document.
“There’s a statement from a private therapist claiming you suffer from unresolved grief and unpredictable behavior.”
“I’ve never met this therapist.”
“We know.”
The therapist’s license number belonged to someone who had retired years earlier.
Investigators also found draft letters addressed to the Mercer board. One claimed Daniel had become incapable of managing the company after Nora’s death. Another recommended that Claire receive temporary voting control.
Everything had been prepared.
All Claire needed was Daniel’s signature on the first and final pages. The substituted pages would do the rest.
Evelyn sat in the library while an officer questioned her.
She insisted she had believed the papers were only for Millie’s protection.
Then Aaron played the recording again.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“I knew Claire had changed something,” she admitted.
“How much did you know?” Daniel asked.
His mother looked older than she had that morning.
“Your father planned to remove Claire from the company.”
“Why?”
“She had taken money.”
Daniel felt the old anger return.
“And you let Nora take the blame.”
“I thought Claire would return it.”
“Nora died believing I thought she was a thief.”
Evelyn began crying.
“I was trying to keep the family together.”
Daniel looked around the library at the portraits and awards.
“No. You were trying to keep the family looking perfect.”
Evelyn explained that Thomas discovered Claire’s theft nearly two years earlier. He secretly changed his will, placing his controlling shares into a trust for Millie.
Thomas had admired Nora because she challenged the family’s obsession with appearances. He believed Nora and Daniel would teach Millie to use the family’s wealth responsibly.
Claire learned about the new will when she searched Thomas’s desk.
She then began moving larger sums from company accounts while using Nora’s credentials. Her plan was to make Nora appear responsible for the missing money and destroy Thomas’s trust in her.
But Thomas had not believed the evidence.
He had hired an independent attorney, Rebecca Sloan, to investigate.
“Where is the new will?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know,” Evelyn said. “Thomas never told me.”
Aaron looked through the folder.
“Claire clearly believed it would surface soon.”
Daniel remembered Millie saying Claire had mentioned the trust documents.
One page contained a handwritten note:
Rebecca will release everything on M’s sixth birthday unless D contacts her first.
Millie would turn six in three weeks.
Claire had been running out of time.
The party had not been a celebration to her.
May you like
It had been her last opportunity to make Daniel sign away his daughter’s future.
