Chapter 5
Evelyn laughed when confronted.
Her lip was swollen from Valentina’s slap.
Her eyes remained defiant.
“You think I tricked a seventy-six-year-old woman into signing criminal paperwork?”
Adelaide stiffened.
Valentina saw the insult beneath the question.
“Careful.”
Evelyn’s gaze shifted toward her.
Valentina did nothing else.
The warning was enough.
Grant stepped between them.
“You’re not interrogating my wife alone.”
Valentina’s eyes moved to him.
Her brother’s chest rose slowly beneath his suit.
Still protecting Evelyn.
Still confident enough to stand between them.
“Then answer for her.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
Valentina placed the disputed authorization on the table.
“Did you use Mom’s signature?”
“No.”
Evelyn answered instead.
“Neither did I.”
Adelaide leaned forward.
Her hands trembled.
But her voice did not.
“You carried the forms.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“I carried a folder.”
“And you kept turning pages before I finished reading.”
“You asked me to help.”
Adelaide’s mouth tightened.
Memory was not proof.
Valentina knew it.
So did Grant.
He smiled faintly.
“See the problem?”
Valentina said nothing.
Her silence made him less comfortable.
Then the estate physician called.
Adelaide’s appointment forms were retrieved from the clinic.
Every document she legitimately signed had a digital timestamp.
The Northline authorization did not.
It had been scanned later.
Different machine.
Different location.
The scan originated from Grant’s office.
His expression changed.
Valentina saw it.
“So.”
Grant exhaled.
“That proves the document passed through my office.”
“Nothing more?”
“Correct.”
Valentina stepped closer.
“How long are you planning to hide behind technical wording?”
“As long as you hide behind emotion.”
Her eyes sharpened.
Grant continued.
“You hit me in front of the family because my wife insulted Mom.”
“She raised a cane at her.”
“And now every capo has footage of you punching your own brother.”
Valentina stopped.
There it was.
The political weapon.
Grant’s confidence returned.
“You think today made me weaker?”
His mouth curved.
“You gave me exactly what I needed.”
A bodyguard entered holding a phone.
Valentina took it.
A video was already circulating.
It began with her punch.
Grant crashing into the baskets.
Then her slap across Evelyn’s face.
No cupcake.
No cane.
No attempt to strike Adelaide.
Valentina’s eyes went cold.
Grant leaned closer.
“Northline exists because some people think you stopped being capable of separating family from power.”
Valentina looked at the timestamp.
May you like
The clip had been uploaded before Grant ever hit the ground.
Someone had been waiting for the confrontation.
