Chapter 9 - Explain the Transfer
“Then explain the transfer.”
Landon’s anger vanished.
Sienna tightened her hand around his sleeve.
“What transfer?” she asked.
I held the phone where Landon could see the banking interface.
“Pacific Heritage Management.”
Several guests exchanged confused looks.
A man near the front row lowered his champagne.
Landon stared at Sienna.
“You said that company was created for the property renovations.”
“It was.”
“With my name as beneficiary?”
Her lips parted.
“I can explain.”
“Please do,” I said. “Everyone came to celebrate your honesty.”
Sienna’s eyes flashed toward Margaret.
Margaret stepped forward.
“Maya, this is neither the time nor place.”
“It is my home.”
“You’re upsetting yourself.”
The wording was deliberate.
She wanted the guests to see me as fragile.
I turned my phone toward her.
“Would the drink you prepared help calm me down?”
Margaret froze.
The silence became heavy.
I removed the sealed evidence bag from my blazer pocket just far enough for her to see the white ribbon around the stem.
Her face collapsed.
Landon looked from the glass to his mother.
“What is that?”
Margaret said nothing.
Sienna tried to regain control.
“She’s staging this. That’s what she does. She creates drama and then records people reacting.”
A few guests nodded uncertainly.
Sienna saw it and became bolder.
“She has been under psychiatric care,” she announced. “Her own doctor said she was unstable.”
Landon looked relieved.
That was the narrative they had rehearsed.
I tapped my screen.
Dr. Cole’s recorded statement began playing through the phone speaker.
“My name is Dr. Adrian Cole. I accepted payment from Sienna Vale to prepare a false medical assessment of Maya Whitmore…”
Gasps moved through the garden.
Sienna lunged toward the phone.
Landon caught her arm instinctively.
Not to protect her.
To stop her.
The recording continued.
“Landon Whitmore knew the report was false and supplied private messages to support it.”
Every eye moved to him.
Landon released Sienna as though she had burned him.
“You told me Cole would only certify stress,” he said.
“You read the report,” I replied.
He looked at me.
For the first time that afternoon, he had no answer.
Then my phone played Dr. Cole’s final sentence.
“Sienna also instructed Landon’s mother to prepare a sedative for Maya if she appeared at the ceremony.”
Margaret sat down hard in the nearest chair.
The guests recoiled from her.
But Sienna did not break.
Instead, she looked at me and smiled.
May you like
“You still can’t prove the money was mine.”
👉 Sienna believed the shell company protected her—but the account’s security camera had captured the person who delivered Maya’s forged identity documents.
