Chapter 9 - The Crime Before Sophie Was Born
Twenty-five years earlier, Helena had been chief financial officer of one of the companies merging with Thomas Vale’s business.
The transaction should have left Thomas with a significant ownership position.
Instead, part of his equity disappeared through an amendment signed days before closing.
Thomas claimed the amendment was fraudulent.
No one believed him.
His own attorney produced a copy containing his signature.
Thomas lost the lawsuit.
Years later, his finances collapsed.
He separated from Nora’s mother.
Nora grew up thinking her father simply abandoned them.
Now forensic document experts reviewed archived records.
Thomas’s signature on the amendment showed the same type of manipulation later used on Daniel’s support documents.
Not identical technology.
Same principle.
Copied signature.
False authorization.
Helena had been doing this long before Vincent worked for the family.
Antonio apparently never knew.
The recovered shares had eventually become part of the D’Angelo family holdings.
That created a major problem.
If Thomas’s claim was proven, part of the fortune Helena spent decades protecting might rightfully belong to him or his heirs.
Nora.
And through Nora, Sophie.
Suddenly Helena’s obsession became clearer.
Sophie was Roman’s daughter.
But she was also potentially heir to a financial claim against the D’Angelos.
If Nora learned the truth, Helena could face civil exposure reaching back decades.
So Helena tried to keep Nora powerless.
Then Sophie was born.
Now the child could inherit from both sides.
The past and future met in one three-year-old girl.
Roman looked at Nora differently after learning it.
Not suspiciously.
Sadly.
Both of them had inherited wars they never started.
Nora did not want revenge.
She wanted one thing.
To know what happened to her father.
Investigators located Thomas Vale.
He was alive.
Living quietly in Oregon.
Nora had not seen him in twenty-two years.
He agreed to speak only after learning Sophie existed.
Thomas said he never abandoned Nora voluntarily.
After losing the company, he spiraled.
Debt.
Depression.
Shame.
He convinced himself Nora was better without him.
Years later he tried to contact her.
Letters were returned.
Phone numbers changed.
Nora’s mother had already died.
Thomas assumed Nora wanted nothing to do with him.
Then Roman’s investigators found something devastating.
Some of Thomas’s letters had reached New York.
Not Nora.
Helena.
Caleb Ross’s old files contained copies.
Helena had intercepted them through an investigator who was monitoring Nora’s family.
She knew Thomas wanted contact.
She kept them apart too.
Roman stared at his mother’s pattern.
Nora and Thomas.
Nora and Roman.
Roman and Sophie.
Helena did not merely steal money.
She controlled people by deciding who was allowed to reach whom.
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But Thomas had kept one original document from the old merger.
Something Helena believed destroyed.
