Chapter 6 - Curtis’s Reward
Curtis Wright had never expected to run the family firm.
Thomas considered him intelligent but reckless.
Curtis enjoyed expensive cars, private clubs, and speculative investments.
He borrowed heavily against future inheritance.
Thomas repeatedly covered his debts.
Then he stopped.
Six months before his death, Thomas discovered that Curtis had transferred client funds into a failed property venture.
No criminal complaint was filed.
Thomas intended to remove Curtis from the company and arrange repayment quietly.
Curtis panicked.
Without the firm, he would lose everything.
Elaine refused to let that happen.
Curtis was the child who stayed.
The child who accompanied her to events.
The child who understood that loyalty meant obedience.
Rebecca, in Elaine’s mind, had chosen the Army over the family.
So Elaine protected Curtis.
She persuaded Thomas to postpone the dismissal.
When he refused, she began questioning his health.
She told friends he was confused.
She controlled his medications.
She limited his appointments.
Then a new will appeared.
After Thomas died, Curtis received the company.
Within weeks, he sold several assets and paid his debts.
He also purchased a waterfront condominium.
During a pretrial deposition, Rebecca’s attorney asked where the money came from.
Curtis smiled.
“My inheritance.”
“Your father intended to remove you from the company, correct?”
“No.”
“We have an unsigned board resolution saying otherwise.”
“My father changed his mind.”
“When?”
“Before he died.”
“Who witnessed that?”
“My mother.”
Elaine’s testimony supported him perfectly.
Too perfectly.
Every answer matched.
Every timeline aligned.
Then Rebecca’s attorney produced bank records.
Two days after Thomas’s new will was signed, Curtis transferred eighty thousand dollars to Leonard Hayes.
Curtis claimed it was payment for legal consulting.
Hayes had never represented him.
The transfer was made through a shell company.
When asked why, Curtis stopped smiling.
Elaine requested a recess.
Outside the courtroom, she cornered Rebecca.
“You are destroying your brother.”
Rebecca looked at her mother.
“He helped erase me from Dad’s will.”
“He needed protection.”
“So did Dad.”
Elaine’s face hardened.
“You were not here.”
Rebecca’s scarred hand curled into a fist.
May you like
“I was serving the country you now accuse me of deceiving.”
👉 Curtis’s payment connected him to the forged will—but the person who could explain it had vanished.
