Chapter 8 - THE DOCUMENT THEY WANTED
The most important item in the inner compartment was not a gem report.
It was a sealed memorandum written by Harold.
Alora had never opened it.
Instructions required:
open only if a discrepancy dispute became adversarial.
The assault qualified.
The attorney opened it with Laura present.
Harold wrote:
If Corrine or Sloan contests the inventory, compare my private repair ledger against insurer submissions.
There was a private ledger?
Alora had never seen it.
Harold had hidden it elsewhere.
Where?
The memorandum gave location:
safe deposit box.
The bank produced the ledger under estate authority.
It listed every time Harold personally authorized jewelry movement.
Dozens of entries.
Dates.
Pieces.
Jewelers.
Repairs.
Loans for events.
Five disputed items never appeared.
Meaning Harold had not authorized their removal.
Then a sixth did.
The diamond ring.
He did authorize it.
Two years earlier.
He sold it himself to cover a charitable pledge after an investment loss.
He replaced it with a similar ring and told nobody.
Why?
Pride.
Now Corrine looked almost vindicated.
“See? He did the same thing.”
Alora shook her head.
“No.”
Harold had sold a ring he personally owned and replaced it.
Still deceptive to family perhaps.
But he had documented it privately.
No false insurance claim.
No claim someone else stole it.
Different.
Then Sloan smiled.
“Still lied.”
True.
Harold was not perfect.
That mattered.
The family system did not begin with one evil woman.
Secrecy was already a habit.
Then the ledger revealed another shock.
One item Corrine believed she had sold years earlier—
the emerald brooch—
was not Harold’s original.
It had already been replaced before she touched it.
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Who did the first substitution?
The date traced back to Thane’s grandmother.
