Chapter 3 - The Agreement in the Attic
The next morning, Alice climbed slowly into the attic while Aiden was at work.
She had not been up there since her father died.
Joyce, her mother, waited beneath the ladder with both hands raised.
“You shouldn’t be climbing in your condition.”
“I need the blue document box.”
Joyce helped her down and carried the box into the kitchen.
Inside were old tax returns, property records, letters from Alice’s father, and the original paperwork from Holland Development’s formation.
Alice found the document near the bottom.
Aiden had called it a temporary investment agreement.
At twenty-four, Alice had inherited six hundred thousand dollars from her grandfather.
Aiden had convinced her to use most of it to launch his first real-estate project.
The agreement stated that her investment would convert into a forty-nine-percent ownership interest once the company became profitable.
Alice had signed.
Aiden had signed.
Her father had witnessed it.
Alice remembered asking for a copy years later.
Aiden claimed the agreement had been replaced by ordinary marital ownership.
But the original remained in her father’s box.
Joyce read it twice.
“He told you this was canceled?”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever sign a cancellation?”
Alice searched every folder.
There was none.
Then she found a second page attached to the back.
A clause she had never noticed stated that any attempt to conceal company assets during a divorce would trigger an immediate audit and transfer temporary voting control to Alice.
Her father had insisted on it.
Aiden had signed without reading carefully.
Joyce looked at her daughter.
“Does he know you have this?”
Alice placed the agreement inside a sealed envelope.
May you like
“No.”
👉 And before Alice could use it, she had to discover where Aiden had hidden the company he claimed was worthless.
