Chapter 14 - THE ARCHITECT IN EXILE
The tablet screen glowed cold and white in the twilight, illuminating the name printed at the bottom of the scanned Swiss corporate charter: *Victoria Vance-Holloway.*
My lungs seized. The mug of cider slipped from my fingers, shattering against the porch floorboards and splashing warm amber liquid across my boots.
"Victoria?" Julian’s voice turned razor-sharp, his analytical calm instantly cracking. "Your father’s elder sister? The one living in a convalescent home in Geneva?"
"She isn’t convalescing," I whispered, staring at the bold, sloping signature that had signed away my father’s life and legacy fifteen years ago. "She was never sick. She wasn't an invalid who gave up her claim to the family timberline out of grief. She was waiting."
Naomi bent down, carefully stepping around the broken shards to look at the screen. Her eyes widened as she scrolled down to the corporate ledger. "Meredith... look at the transfer logs. Sterling didn't operate on his own capital. Every retainer check, every bribe paid to the county zoning commissioners, every penny funneled into Lydia’s lifestyle was authorized from an offshore account titled *Geneva Trust-V.* Victoria set this whole board up before your father was even diagnosed."
A cold wind swept off the river, rustling the pines of the newly secured sanctuary. For weeks, I had believed that Lydia was the sole viper in our home—that my younger sister’s jealousy, vanity, and venomous malice were the ultimate source of my family’s destruction. I had watched Lydia splash that caustic pink cocktail into my face at the gala, thinking she was acting out of pure, unadulterated spite.
Now the terrifying truth stared back at me in black ink. Lydia was a spoiled, vicious weapon, but she had not crafted the bullet. Someone else had loaded the gun, aimed it at my head, and promised Lydia the kingdom if I was eliminated.
"Julian," I said, my fingers clenching into fists until my nails bit into my palms. "The proxy shares. Reyes' note said Victoria still controls thirty percent of Grandfather’s original voting stock."
Julian pulled out his phone, already dialing the probate court’s emergency clerk. "If she activates that thirty percent before the probate decree is formally entered into the public record tomorrow at noon, she can file an emergency injunction to overturn the conservation easement. She can petition to seize the estate's liquid assets to satisfy alleged creditor debts from Red Oak."
"Can she invalidate the wildlife reserve?" Naomi asked, her voice tight with panic.
"If she proves Red Oak held an encumbered lien that predates your father’s will, yes," Julian said grimly as the dial tone rang through his speaker. "She can bulldoze every tree on this land before sunrise next week."
"Not while I'm breathing," I said, looking out at the dark silhouette of the woods. "Call Reyes back. Tell him I need twenty minutes alone with Lydia in county holding."
"Meredith, Lydia won't help you," Julian warned, lowering the phone. "She hates you. She’d burn the world down just to watch you choke on the smoke."
May you like
"Lydia thinks she was the mastermind," I replied, feeling the neat, pale scar on my cheek throb with sudden, cold clarity. "Let’s see how she reacts when she finds out she was nothing more than an expendable puppet."
***