Chapter 8 - THE ACCUSATION WAS READY
Police found the draft complaint on Vanessa's laptop.
It had been written two days earlier.
EMPLOYEE ENDANGERED INFANT DURING NIGHTTIME INCIDENT.
Maria read it twice.
Her hands went numb.
The statement described the pool.
The time.
Even the line Vanessa had screamed when Adrian came outside.
"She pushed him into the water!"
Written forty-eight hours before the stroller ever fell.
Adrian stared at Vanessa.
"You planned the accusation."
Vanessa said nothing.
Claire did.
"She said Maria was too important to Oliver."
Maria looked at her.
"Too important?"
Vanessa finally exploded.
"He cries when you leave! He reaches for you before he reaches for me!"
Adrian's expression became disgusted.
"He's a baby."
"And you treat her like family!"
Maria stepped back as if struck.
So this was part of it.
Jealousy.
But Claire shook her head.
"That's not all."
Vanessa turned on her.
"Shut up."
Claire ignored her.
"Maria found the blue folder last week."
Maria frowned.
"What folder?"
Then she remembered.
A leather document case left beneath the nursery changing table.
She had moved it into Adrian's study without opening it.
Adrian went upstairs.
The blue folder was still there.
Inside was a petition to establish Vanessa as Oliver's legal guardian after marriage.
That was normal enough.
The attached financial schedule was not.
It gave the guardian broad authority over a trust created by Oliver's late mother.
Value: $11.6 million.
Maria felt cold.
Adrian read the final page.
His signature was already there.
He had never signed it.
Then Ramon noticed the witness line.
May you like
It carried Maria Santos's name.
Her signature had been forged too.
