Leonard pushed another page toward me.
At the bottom was a signature that resembled mine from a distance.
Up close, it was wrong.
The loop in the R was too narrow.
The final stroke leaned left.
Whoever copied it had used an old contract from the years when I still signed Emily Whitlock professionally, then altered the surname.
“I did not sign this.”
Adrian folded his arms.
“Then one of your employees did.”
“I have no employees.”
“You outsource drafting.”
“Drafting consultants cannot authorize structural compliance under my license.”
The accountant spoke quietly.
“The authorization was submitted with a consulting payment from Whitlock Development to Rowan Studio.”
“I never received one.”
“We know,” Leonard said.
“The payment was redirected.”
Lillian’s face drained of color.
Adrian noticed.
“Don’t,” he warned her.
Leonard placed a bank record beside the forged authorization.
“The funds were deposited into Hawthorne Design Services.”
I had never heard the name.
Lillian had.
Her chair struck the wall when she stepped backward.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Leonard looked at Lillian.
“Hawthorne Design Services was registered fourteen months ago using your home address.”
Lillian shook her head.
“Adrian set it up.
He said it was for consulting fees.”
“You signed the registration.”
“He told me where to sign.”
Adrian laughed again, but the sound was thinner now.
“This has nothing to do with the will.
My father found a few accounting irregularities and became paranoid.”
“The irregularities totaled eight hundred and forty thousand dollars,” the accountant said.
Silence followed.
Even Eleanor looked at her son.
Adrian’s jaw flexed.
“Temporary transfers.
The money was being repositioned for the Monterey project.”
“Through a company registered to your assistant?” asked the senior employee.
“She handled project coordination.”
Lillian turned on him.
“You said the board approved everything.”
“I said sit down.”
“No.
You told me Samuel wanted the money moved before the land sale.”
Leonard’s attention sharpened.
“What land sale?”
Adrian looked at her as if she had slapped him.
Lillian realized what she had revealed and covered her mouth.
The accountant opened his briefcase.
“We found a draft purchase agreement yesterday.
The Monterey parcel was to be sold to Hawthorne Design Services for less than one-third of its appraised value.”
