Chapter 7 - The Attorney Who Was Afraid
Leonard Hayes was found three states away.
He had rented a room under his middle name.
A private investigator located him after tracing pharmacy purchases.
Rebecca did not go to him personally.
Her attorney arranged a recorded interview.
Hayes looked twenty years older than he had in the photographs.
His hands shook.
“I did not forge Thomas Wright’s signature,” he said immediately.
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Thomas sign the revised will in your presence?”
Hayes closed his eyes.
“No.”
The room went silent.
He explained that Elaine came to his office carrying typed instructions.
She claimed Thomas was too sick to travel.
Curtis brought a document bearing Thomas’s signature.
Hayes refused to notarize it.
Then Elaine showed him evidence that his firm had mishandled client trust funds years earlier.
The mistake had been corrected, but if exposed, Hayes believed he would lose his license and perhaps face charges.
Elaine offered silence in exchange for cooperation.
Hayes prepared the revised will.
He arranged witnesses who never saw Thomas sign.
He later met Thomas at the Wright home and discussed “estate paperwork” without showing him the final document.
“Why didn’t you report her?” Rebecca’s attorney asked.
“I was afraid.”
“Did Thomas ever say Rebecca lied about her service?”
“No.”
“Did he believe she abandoned him?”
“No.”
Hayes began crying.
“He talked about her constantly.”
Rebecca watched the recording alone.
Her father’s final months had not been filled with rejection.
He had still loved her.
That truth brought relief and pain in equal measure.
Hayes agreed to testify.
Before the hearing, someone broke into his motel room.
Nothing valuable was taken.
Only the copy of his recorded statement disappeared.
Fortunately, Rebecca’s legal team held the original.
Hayes became terrified again.
He refused to appear voluntarily.
Elaine’s attorneys then filed a motion accusing Rebecca of fabricating the interview.
The judge scheduled a major evidentiary hearing.
Elaine decided to attack Rebecca’s military record first.
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If the court believed Rebecca was a fraud, every accusation she made about the will would appear motivated by greed.
👉 Elaine’s strategy depended on humiliating Rebecca before the truth about Hayes could be heard.
