Chapter 3 - THE FILE ON MARCUS
Paul Renner denied everything.
He denied sharing records.
Denied knowing Victoria's plan.
Denied signing any guardianship petition.
Then Detective Brooks showed him the metadata.
The draft was created on his office computer.
They had not spoken since the hospital room.
Sofia slept in a carrier beside him.
"Would you like to hold her?"
"No."
The answer hurt.
Good.
He needed to stop treating pain as evidence that someone else was cruel.
"Renner's office is being searched."
"What are you looking for?"
"Anything tied to Victoria."
Renner had documented Marcus's therapy sessions in two files.
One legitimate.
One altered.
The altered file exaggerated every symptom.
"Patient displays violent fixation."
"Paranoid attachment to infant daughter."
"Potential risk during acute stress."
"This is what Victoria was going to use."
"To argue you couldn't safely parent."
"Why would Victoria want custody of Sofia?"
Fundraising gala.
Elegant.
Funny.
Warm with Sofia.
Too perfect.
Adriana's will.
Sofia inherited thirty-eight percent of Vale Holdings at age twenty-five.
Until then, the shares were controlled by Marcus as guardian.
But there was a clause.
If Marcus died or was declared unfit, guardianship and voting control passed to Adriana's named secondary guardian.
"Who?"
"Victoria Lang."
Silence.
"That's impossible. Adriana barely knew her."
The secondary guardian had not always been Victoria.
The name was changed eight months after Adriana died.
Marcus's signature approved it.
"I never signed this."
Ethan pointed to the digital certificate.
"It validates."
Someone had used his authorization.
Elena asked, "Who had access?"
Office.
Security.
His late wife's foundation records.
Paul Renner.
Victoria.
His CFO, Nathan Crowe.
Then Ethan said, "There's more."
A life insurance policy on Marcus had been amended at the same time.
Beneficiary for the family trust:
Victoria Lang.
"How much?"
"Two hundred million."
Brooks said, "Then pushing Sofia into the pool may not have been the first plan."
May you like
"What was?"
"You."
