Chapter 21 - THE FIRST THING RACHEL REFUSED
Gabriel wanted Claire and Eva moved into the main house.
Rachel said no.
He looked at her as if he had misheard.
“No?”
“No.”
“They’re safer here.”
“So are my children.”
“I can secure the property.”
“That’s not the point.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
Rachel continued.
“You don’t get to bring a threat into this house without telling me what we’re dealing with.”
Claire remained silent.
Eva looked impressed.
Gabriel exhaled.
“There may be people tied to the old company accounts.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then we don’t know whether this house is safer.”
Gabriel stared at her.
Rachel did not move.
Two years earlier she would have accepted his decisions because he had money, security and certainty.
She had confused being rescued with surrendering judgment.
Not anymore.
They compromised.
Claire and Eva moved into a furnished condo owned by Cross Development, with independent security and a different address from Rachel’s home.
Gabriel hated it.
Rachel considered that healthy.
Then she made another decision.
She contacted an attorney.
Her own.
Not Gabriel’s.
When she told him, he looked wounded.
“That necessary?”
“Yes.”
“You think I’d put you at risk?”
“I think you have before.”
His face changed.
She almost softened.
Didn’t.
“That’s the problem, Gabriel. People don’t have to mean harm to cause it.”
He looked away.
That evening, Rachel’s attorney reviewed the documents Claire had received.
One thing stood out.
The handwritten approval.
It did not match Gabriel’s current signature.
But signatures change.
Rachel asked the obvious question.
“Can we find older ones?”
Gabriel’s archived corporate records held thousands.
They compared twelve.
None matched.
Then Owen, who had been helping Rachel scan pages, pointed at one document.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“This one.”
A construction contract from fourteen years earlier.
The approval signature looked almost identical to the disputed notation.
But the signer was not Gabriel.
It belonged to his uncle.
Martin Cross.
Gabriel’s father’s younger brother.
May you like
The man who had taken over company finances during the exact year Claire was accused.
The man Gabriel still met for lunch every Sunday.
