I stared at the signatures until the letters began to swim.
My name was unmistakable.
Daniel Miller.
The handwriting looked almost right.
Almost.
But the final stroke of the M was too narrow, and the loop beneath the l was something I had never written.
Hannah watched my face.
“It's forged.”
“Who signed it?”
“I don't know.”
I looked at the second signature.
Hannah Miller.
She shook her head.
“I never signed that.”
“What does it say?”
“That I voluntarily surrendered custody of the children to a private guardian.”
My hands tightened around the folder.
“Who was the guardian?”
She did not answer.
I looked down.
The name was there.
Elias Voss.
I recognized it.
Arthur's attorney.
He had represented my father for nearly thirty years.
“He was involved?”
Hannah nodded.
“He came to me after you stopped answering.”
“I wasn't stopping.”
“I know that now.”
She closed her eyes.
“He told me you had decided the children would ruin your career.”
I looked at the floor.
“What else?”
“He said Arthur could make the company disappear from you if I fought him.”
I felt a cold pressure behind my ribs.
“He threatened you?”
“He didn't have to.”
She looked at me.
“He showed me photographs.”
“What photographs?”
“Your father meeting with board members. Your name on the merger documents. Your signature on a resignation letter.”
I frowned.
“I never signed a resignation.”
“I know.”
“He showed me a copy.”
Hannah's hands trembled.
“I believed it.”
I leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Because you never came.”
The words were soft.
I had no defense against them.
She continued.
“I called your office. I called your apartment. I left messages with people who told me you were busy. Then Arthur came to the house.”
My head lifted.
“He came to our apartment?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night before I left.”
I remembered that night.
Arthur had told me he needed me at the warehouse.
He had kept me there until nearly midnight.
When I returned home, Hannah was gone.
“You told me you were going to Sacramento,” I said.
She stared at me.
“I never said that.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Arthur had invented the entire story.
Hannah had not abandoned me.
She had been frightened into leaving.
“What happened to the house?”
“Arthur had already arranged for the lease to end.”
“Why?”
“He said I needed to disappear.”
I could barely breathe.
“And the money?”
She looked at me.
“What money?”
“The fifteen thousand dollars.”
Her expression changed.
“I never received it.”
I closed my eyes.
Then who had?
A knock came at the door.
The nurse entered carrying a paper cup.
“Hannah, your medication.”
Hannah nodded.
The nurse left.
I waited until the door closed.
“Why are you still here?”
She looked toward the window.
“Because I got sick.”
“What happened?”
“Six months ago I collapsed.”
She hesitated.
“The doctors found a condition that requires treatment.”
I wanted to ask more.
Instead I asked, “Do the boys know?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“They know I'm ill.”
Her voice cracked.
“They don't know how serious it is.”
I understood why she had sent them.
She was afraid she might run out of time.
The thought frightened me more than anything Arthur had done.
I reached across the bed.
She looked at my hand.
For a moment neither of us moved.
Then she took it.
Her fingers were cold.
“I am sorry,” I said.
She shook her head.
“Don't apologize for something you didn't do.”
“I should have trusted you.”
“You trusted your father.”
“I was wrong.”
“Yes.”
She said it without cruelty.
That somehow made it harder.
I opened the folder again.
There were more documents.
Bank records.
Property records.
Letters.
A photograph of a storage facility.
A receipt from a private investigator.
I recognized the investigator's name.
He had worked for Arthur before.
I looked at Hannah.
“He was watching you.”
“For years.”
“Why?”
She looked down.
“Because I had something he needed.”
“What?”
She pointed to the bottom of the folder.
A sealed envelope.
I opened it.
Inside was a copy of my father's original succession agreement.
I read the first page.
Then the second.
The merger was not simply about company ownership.
There was a clause requiring me to remain married.
My blood ran cold.
“Arthur couldn't transfer control to me if I divorced.”
Hannah nodded.
“He told me that if I stayed, he would protect your position.”
“And if I left?”
“He would tell the board that you were unstable.”
I looked at her.
“So he needed our marriage to survive.”
“Yes.”
“And he still destroyed it.”
“Because he thought he could control you afterward.”
The pieces finally connected.
The pressure.
The merger.
The lies.
The intercepted calls.
The forged custody agreement.
The fifteen-thousand-dollar payment.
Arthur had not acted out of some simple desire to separate us.
He had been protecting his control of the company.
He had treated our lives as legal instruments.
I closed the folder.
“We can expose him.”
Hannah shook her head.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because he has the original records.”
I frowned.
“Where?”
She pointed toward the folder.
“The documents you have are copies.”
“Where are the originals?”
She looked toward the door.
“In a place he believes no one knows about.”
I leaned closer.
“Where?”
She gave me an address.
My stomach dropped.
It was the address of the old family house.
The one Arthur had sold three years ago.
The one he had always told me had been cleared before the sale.
“There is a basement,” Hannah said.
I stared at her.
“You've been there?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
She reached into the drawer beside her bed.
She removed a small brass key.
“He gave this to me.”
“Arthur?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“He thought I would use it to prove you had abandoned me.”
I took the key.
On the ring was a tiny engraved number.
17.
I remembered that number.
It was the same number my father used for the locked storage room beneath the old house.
I stood.
“We need to go.”
Hannah caught my wrist.
“Daniel.”
I turned.
“Be careful.”
“With Arthur?”
“With everyone.”
Her eyes filled with fear.
“There is one more thing.”
“What?”
“The boys weren't the only children.”
I stared at her.
She swallowed.
“Arthur has another secret.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 7: Hannah Revealed the Secret Arthur Had Buried Beneath the Company, and Suddenly the Children Were Only One Piece of His Plan
Two Silent Boys Walked Into My Office Carrying Something That Made Six Years of My Life Suddenly Look Like a Lie
Part 6 of 12
