Chapter 10 - Samuel Had Loved Allison Too
Samuel did not want to talk about Allison.
I made him.
Not cruelly.
Directly.
“If she’s trying to take something from Oliver, I need everything.”
He nodded.
Then told me.
Allison Reed was not merely his research partner.
She was the woman he planned to marry after Evelyn.
I stared.
My family tree had become a badly managed construction drawing.
Samuel and Evelyn were engaged.
Evelyn became pregnant.
Samuel believed the child—me—might be Robert’s after discovering Evelyn and Robert had become close during the financial conflict.
They broke up.
Samuel then worked more closely with Allison.
Research became relationship.
Then the $600,000 theft happened.
Samuel was blamed.
Allison told him she believed him.
She promised to leave with him.
She never arrived.
Instead, Robert later told Samuel Allison died in a laboratory accident.
Samuel left the state.
Changed his name.
Built another life.
“Why would Dad lie?”
“I don’t know.”
Robert’s memorandum suggested Allison participated in the theft.
Maybe Dad thought telling Samuel she was dead would keep him from finding her.
Protection through deception again.
Then Maya asked:
“Does Evelyn know Allison?”
Samuel looked uncomfortable.
“Yes.”
Of course.
“How well?”
“They hated each other.”
“Then why would Evelyn send royalties toward Allison’s company?”
“I don’t know.”
We checked communications.
Evelyn and Allison had exchanged emails for fourteen months.
Not hatred.
Business.
One message:
EVELYN:
Martin says Daniel remains unaware.
ALLISON:
Keep it that way until medical activation.
Medical activation.
Oliver’s asthma diagnosis.
They had been waiting for a grandchild with qualifying medical status.
Not causing the medical status.
Not causing the asthma.
Waiting to exploit it.
Then:
ALLISON:
Once Evelyn has guardianship, Carter Medical can settle historical ownership.
EVELYN:
And my share?
ALLISON:
As agreed.
My stomach turned.
My mother had been promised money.
“How much?”
Julia traced draft settlement schedules.
Evelyn:
$8 million.
Martin:
$5 million legal/admin allocation.
Allison-controlled entities:
Respiratory patents and future royalties.
Oliver’s trust:
$12.6 million cash remaining, but stripped of the highest-upside technology.
They planned to carve it apart.
Then Maya said:
“They still needed my signature.”
Yes.
Because Robert’s final amendment blocked family control.
Martin suppressed it.
But if Maya voluntarily consented to medical guardianship, they could argue Evelyn had independent authority under an older version while litigation played out.
That was why the inhaler became leverage.
They needed speed.
Then Julia received a call from Hanover.
The attempted patent transfer had been stopped.
Another win.
But Allison filed her own lawsuit in federal court claiming the respiratory design belonged to her personally.
A legitimate dispute on the surface.
She produced lab notebooks.
Samuel read them.
His face changed.
“They’re mine.”
“All of them?”
“Some.”
“Can you prove it?”
“My handwriting.”
Not enough.
Then Allison produced an assignment agreement.
Samuel Carter to Allison Reed.
Signed thirty-four years earlier.
Transferring all prototype rights.
Samuel stared.
“I never signed this.”
Everyone said that eventually.
We needed evidence.
The notary:
Henry Hale.
Martin’s father.
There it was.
Old fraudulent infrastructure.
Maybe.
Or Samuel had signed and forgotten.
No assumptions.
Then Allison requested DNA discovery.
I frowned.
“What does DNA have to do with patent ownership?”
Nothing.
Julia read further.
Allison claimed she had a biological heir with an interest in the original research partnership.
Samuel went completely still.
“What?”
Allison asserted that while she and Samuel were together, she gave birth to a son.
Samuel whispered:
“No.”
“You had a child?”
“She never told me.”
Name:
Nathan Reed.
Age thirty-four.
Current occupation:
Attorney.
Employer:
Hale & Kessler.
Martin Hale’s firm.
My stomach dropped.
Allison and Samuel’s alleged son worked for Martin.
A man potentially connected biologically to me.
My half-brother.
Inside the law firm manipulating Oliver’s trust.
Then Julia opened Nathan’s professional photo.
I recognized him immediately.
He had been in my house.
Three months earlier.
Maya did too.
“That’s the man who came with Martin.”
“When?”
“The day your blue binder disappeared.”
May you like
Nathan Reed had been standing inside my home when the original patent evidence vanished.
📖 Read why Nathan Reed entered my house before the guardianship scheme began—and what the nursery camera captured him taking from Robert’s blue binder in CHAPTER 11. 👇
