Chapter 8 - LUCAS BREAKS FIRST
Lucas did not confess.
He negotiated.
There was a difference.
Once financial regulators began asking about his Northstar debt position and prosecutors opened an inquiry into the forged medical letter, Lucas’s attorney requested a cooperation meeting.
Malcolm did not attend.
David Chen did.
So did outside counsel.
Lucas admitted:
He pushed Serena to get the governance addendum signed.
He hid his full Northstar exposure.
He encouraged the idea that Malcolm’s age justified broader family authority.
He supplied background information used in the false medical letter.
He denied personally forging the doctor’s signature.
Investigators later found a contractor who produced the document after Lucas requested a “mock board-risk memo.”
Whether Lucas explicitly ordered it circulated became disputed.
Still, his legal position collapsed under the rest.
Serena’s position became more complicated.
Texts showed she knew Lucas was desperate.
Knew he wanted access.
Knew Malcolm had not agreed to any authority transfer.
But there was no evidence she planned to incapacitate Malcolm physically or had fabricated medical evidence herself.
Her betrayal was greed, concealment, manipulation.
Not attempted murder.
Malcolm was almost relieved.
He had begun imagining darker things than evidence supported.
That mattered.
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He refused to become a man who needed Serena to be worse than she was in order to justify leaving.
She had already done enough.
