Chapter 6 - Nathan’s Office
Nathan stopped defending himself.
“Search everything.”
Corinne looked at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding out who used my files.”
“You know who did.”
Nathan turned.
“No. I know what I did. I drafted documents I should never have touched.”
He pointed toward the forged amendment.
“I did not create that signature.”
Daniel arranged a forensic review.
Office access records produced four names.
Nathan.
His assistant.
A contract paralegal.
And Corinne.
Ethan stared.
“You had access to his office?”
Corinne answered:
“He’s my brother.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Nathan looked sick.
“I gave her a temporary badge.”
“When?”
“After Claire died.”
“Why?”
“She was helping sort some family documents.”
Daniel asked:
“Including Claire’s?”
Nathan hesitated.
“Yes.”
Corinne exploded.
“You’re blaming everything on me now?”
“I’m telling the truth.”
The office system showed Corinne entering after hours twice.
One visit occurred four days before the forged amendment appeared.
She stayed forty-three minutes.
No Nathan.
No assistant.
No paralegal.
Ethan’s expression went flat.
“What were you doing?”
Corinne said nothing.
Then investigators recovered an old printer job.
A scan.
Claire’s genuine signature page.
Sent from Nathan’s office scanner during Corinne’s visit.
Nathan sat down.
“Oh God.”
Corinne started backing toward the door.
Ethan did not touch her.
“Don’t leave.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
“No.”
Daniel answered calmly.
“But you should probably speak to an attorney before destroying whatever explanation you still have.”
Corinne froze.
Then the truth came out.
Piece by piece.
She scanned Claire’s signature.
She gave the file to someone she met online who altered PDF documents.
She used it on the amendment Nathan had previously drafted.
She intended to present it as legitimate if anyone questioned why Nathan should control Maisie’s trust.
Ethan stared at her.
“You forged my dead wife’s signature.”
“Yes.”
“For money?”
“No!”
“Then why?”
Her answer surprised him.
“Because I needed security.”
“From a toddler?”
“From you.”
Silence.
Corinne believed Ethan would eventually compare her to Claire.
Eventually regret marrying her.
Eventually leave.
If Nathan controlled Maisie’s trust, Corinne believed her family would remain financially entangled with Ethan no matter what happened to the marriage.
It was desperate.
Calculated.
Pathetic.
And criminally reckless.
Nathan looked devastated.
“You used my draft.”
“You created it.”
“Before Claire died, as a hypothetical. Then she rejected it.”
“You still created it.”
Nathan had no defense.
Both siblings had crossed lines.
Different ones.
Then Daniel asked about another document.
A property-management authorization.
Corinne’s face changed.
Ethan noticed.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“What did that document do?”
Daniel explained.
If accepted, it would allow management fees to be paid from certain trust-owned properties.
To a management company.
Ethan read the company name.
Mercer Residential Group.
Nathan looked confused.
“I don’t own that.”
Corinne closed her eyes.
Daniel searched corporate records.
Mercer Residential Group had been formed eight months earlier.
Its registered organizer was not Nathan.
It was Corinne.
She had created a company using her maiden name.
And projected fees from Claire’s properties could have paid it hundreds of thousands over several years.
May you like
Now her claim that this had never been about money was collapsing.
👉 Corinne said she only wanted “security,” but Ethan had just discovered a secret company she created to collect fees from the property Claire left for Maisie.
