Chapter 13 - THE LAWYER WHO SWITCHED SIDES
Thomas's betrayal was not emotional.
It was financial.
Vanessa offered him immunity from civil claims and ten million dollars if she gained control of certain trust assets.
Thomas had spent decades cleaning up Adrian's secrets.
Now he intended to profit from them.
He testified that Adrian repeatedly altered documents while mentally unstable during his final year.
If believed, Julian's inheritance could be challenged.
Vanessa did not need to win everything.
She needed assets frozen.
Frozen assets weakened Julian.
Julian's attorneys attacked Thomas's credibility.
Thomas expected it.
He produced recordings of Adrian discussing secret transfers.
Real recordings.
Damaging recordings.
One suggested Adrian planned to conceal Caroline permanently to preserve Julian's inheritance.
Caroline was furious.
Her fragile alliance with Julian shattered.
Vanessa approached her again.
This time Caroline listened.
Julian realized Vanessa had engineered Thomas's testimony partly to isolate him from Caroline.
Every legal move carried emotional consequences.
Mara proposed something Julian hated.
"Give Caroline half."
"Half of what?"
"What Adrian should have recognized."
Julian looked at her.
"The company?"
"The family wealth."
Julian initially refused.
Then he understood.
Vanessa's leverage depended on Caroline believing Julian benefited from Adrian's injustice.
If Julian voluntarily corrected it, Vanessa lost the grievance she exploited.
Julian offered Caroline an independent settlement.
Not hush money.
Not conditioned on silence.
A direct transfer of substantial family assets and a board observer seat if she wanted one.
Caroline suspected manipulation.
Mara met her alone.
Whatever they discussed changed Caroline's mind.
She accepted.
Vanessa lost her again.
Then Thomas made a mistake.
During testimony, he referenced a meeting with Adrian at 9:30 p.m. on the night Adrian died.
Mara knew Adrian had been with her then.
Phone records confirmed Thomas was elsewhere.
Thomas had invented the meeting.
Why?
Because he needed to authenticate a document supposedly signed that night.
The document transferred administrative rights over the child account to Claire Hart's estate.
If the document was false, Vanessa's remaining trust claim collapsed.
Forensic experts examined it.
Adrian's signature was genuine.
The paper was old.
The ink was old.
But a microscopic printer pattern revealed the text had been added years later to a page Adrian had signed blank.
Thomas had forged it.
Vanessa claimed she did not know.
Thomas claimed Vanessa commissioned it.
One of them was lying.
Then investigators searched Thomas's temporary apartment.
They found the original blank-signed pages.
And a ledger listing payments from Harrow Crest.
Vanessa's attorney moved instantly to exclude the evidence, claiming illegal search procedure.
The judge found the warrant valid.
For the first time, Vanessa's calm disappeared in public.
Only for seconds.
Then she recovered.
She contacted prosecutors herself.
She offered evidence against Thomas.
Julian almost admired the speed.
She was abandoning him before he could abandon her.
But Thomas anticipated that too.
He had stored copies of their messages in a dead-man archive.
One message came from Vanessa two days before the wedding.
MAKE SURE MARA NEVER REACHES JULIAN.
Another followed.
IF SHE SHOWS UP, I WILL HANDLE HER MYSELF.
The cathedral attack was no longer an isolated loss of control.
It was part of a plan.
May you like
And the next message was worse.
ADRIAN SHOULD HAVE STAYED QUIET THE FIRST TIME.
