Chapter 11 - Beneath the Land
Mesa Ridge was worth more than we thought.
Much more.
Evelyn called a mineral-rights attorney who pulled records dating back to my grandfather.
The trust owned the surface acreage.
A separate holding company owned subsurface rights tied to a lithium-bearing clay deposit discovered in recent surveys.
My mother had retained controlling shares of that company.
Those shares passed to me outside the trust.
Nobody had told David because nobody expected him to go looking.
“How much?” I asked.
The attorney hesitated.
“A current lease could be worth eight to twelve million over time.”
I sat back.
David had risked prison chasing four point eight million while standing beside something potentially twice as valuable.
Then Evelyn frowned at the corporate registry.
“There’s been an attempted share transfer.”
“To who?”
“Collins Infrastructure Partners.”
David’s company.
My signature appeared again.
This one was dated the day after my mother’s funeral.
Eleven years earlier.
I felt the room tilt.
“He started then.”
Evelyn nodded.
“He may have been testing what he could get away with.”
Daniel arrived with another file.
“We found the Scottsdale older man’s real role.”
“Martin Cole?”
“No. The man in the photo wasn’t Cole.”
I stared at him.
“He used Cole’s name at the hotel?”
“Yes. His real name is Victor Saye.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“It should,” Daniel said. “He handled distressed-asset acquisitions for the lender suing David’s company.”
“So David was trying to sell my land to his creditor?”
“Not exactly.”
Daniel opened the file.
“Victor offered to erase David’s company debt if David delivered control of Mesa Ridge before your forty-fifth birthday.”
I looked at the amount.
Three million two hundred thousand dollars.
At the bottom was a bonus clause.
If David transferred the mineral rights too, he would receive $1.5 million in cash.
May you like
Then Daniel showed me the final line.
Successor beneficiary to be designated: TYLER MASON.
