All Chapters of Signed, Sealed, Sinful : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Lara's POV*We stayed in the office until nine-thirty PM.Franklin came back at five with the original Williams Group property management records, a legal brief on the 2002 settlement terms, and a list of every contact detail the company held for the families named in the file; three of the four had moved since the settlement, and Benjamin tracked the updated addresses through public records in under two hours.Xander called his father at six.I listened from my desk, not deliberately, but the glass walls didn't insulate sound when his voice was that low and that direct; he told Richard about Crawford's letter, said the other families would be contacted, said the only way to make that contact less damaging was for Richard to make it himself, tonight, before Crawford's Thursday deadline.There was a long silence on Richard's end that I couldn't hear.Then Xander said: "I know, Dad; but it has to be you."Another silence; then: "Tonight," Xander said, and put the phone down and came bac

Xander's POVFranklin was on my screen at ten.He brought the full copy of Albert's court motion and walked me through it section by section, and by page four, I'd stopped reading and was just listening because the faster I absorbed it, the faster I could move.Albert had been thorough. He'd built his case around Tonia's statement, around the timeline of Lara's hiring versus our marriage date, and around a theory that a planned arrangement had been deliberately hidden behind the appearance of a genuine union."How strong is Tonia's statement?" I asked."On its own, weak," Franklin said. "Hearsay. Single source. No documentation." He leaned forward. "But if Albert gets a judge to order depositions, we're in discovery. That costs us time we don't have before the trust deadline.""He's not trying to win the motion," I said. "He's trying to eat the clock.""Correct.""Counter-file today," I said. "Full legal response. I want it submitted before close of business.""Already drafting." Fran

I saw Lara end the call at ten past ten.She sat at her desk for a full minute without moving, both hands flat on the surface in front of her, and I watched through the glass because I couldn't do anything else.Then she stood, picked up her notebook, and knocked on my office door."Come in," I said.She opened the door, closed it behind her, and sat in the chair across from my desk. She put her notebook down and looked at me, and her face was very calm, the kind of calm that comes after something large has already happened and the shock hasn't fully converted into feeling yet."She knew," Lara said."What did Evelyn tell you?" I asked.She went through it in order, clearly and without extra words, the way she always organized information, her mother's sister Ruth, Daniel Okafor, the fire, the child, the papers Evelyn signed, the monthly payments, and then the name at the end.When she said my father's name, I didn't flinch, because I'd already read it in the folder. But watching her

I sent Lara back to her desk and told her I'd be five minutes.It was closer to twenty.Benjamin was in my office inside three minutes, laptop open, security feed up on the screen. The footage from the twenty-third floor showed a woman in a dark coat moving through the space with her head slightly down, but the angle was clear enough at one point, the jawline, the hair, the way she walked.Casandra."How did she get a visitor badge?" I asked Benjamin."She used the account of Kellner Interiors," Benjamin said. "A supplier we've used for two projects. She must have had someone on the inside create the booking. The front desk didn't look twice because the name matched a legitimate vendor account.""She was up here for eleven minutes," I said, watching the footage."Yes. And she didn't just post the comment." Benjamin clicked through to another screen. "She accessed the company file server using Tonia's credentials. She was in the archived records for nine of those eleven minutes.""What

Nobody moved for nearly a minute.Samuel sat at the table with both hands flat and his eyes fixed on Lara, and Lara sat across from him and let him take the time he needed, and Evelyn stood near the counter with her hands still folded and her chin up.I stayed in the chair closest to the door because I was not family and this was not my room to fill.Samuel said: "Say it again.""You are Ruth and Daniel Okafor's son," Lara said. Her voice was even and warm and didn't rush. "Daniel died in the Ashby Street fire. Ruth died three weeks after it in the hospital. You were three years old.""And Gran took me in," Samuel said."Yes," Evelyn said, from near the counter. "Your mother asked me to, from her hospital bed. She wrote it in a note." She looked at her hands. "I should have told you sooner, Samuel. I know that. But I was scared and I didn't know how, and then too much time passed, and...""You changed my name," Samuel said. He wasn't angry yet. He was in the space before anger, where