Chapter 3 - The Black Tablet.
The handcuffs clicked open in the officer's hand.
Charlotte heard several guests gasp.
Vanessa folded her arms and regained the smug expression she had worn minutes earlier.
"I told you."
Charlotte looked at Daniel.
"Is the tablet company property?"
Daniel said nothing.
"Answer her," the officer ordered.
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"Technically, the device belongs to the Vale Family Trust."
Charlotte almost smiled.
"And who controls the trust?"
The officer looked impatient.
Daniel glanced up at Victor.
"That is disputed."
Charlotte turned the tablet toward the police.
"Not according to this."
The screen displayed a notarized trust amendment dated eleven months before Eleanor Vale's death.
It transferred controlling voting authority to Charlotte upon her mother's death.
The officer studied it.
Vanessa stepped in.
"That document was invalidated."
Charlotte looked at her.
"How would you know?"
Vanessa froze for half a second.
It was enough.
Charlotte saw Daniel notice it too.
Vanessa gave a dismissive laugh.
"Everyone connected to the board knows."
"Funny."
Charlotte tapped another file.
"Because this version was never sent to the board."
The silence became heavier.
Charlotte saw one older board adviser quietly step away from Vanessa.
Another guest whispered Charlotte's surname as if testing whether it was dangerous to say aloud.
The lobby had become a courtroom without a judge.
Every person in it was beginning to understand that they might soon be witnesses rather than spectators.
Victor finally left the mezzanine railing.
Charlotte watched him disappear from sight.
She knew he was coming downstairs.
She also knew that was bad.
The lead officer lowered the handcuffs slightly.
"Ms. Vale, where did you obtain these files?"
"From my mother."
"When?"
"After she died."
Vanessa laughed once.
"Listen to her."
Charlotte ignored her.
"My mother created a dead-man archive."
Daniel's eyes widened.
"Eleanor had a vault?"
Charlotte met his gaze.
"You really didn't know."
He shook his head almost imperceptibly.
The elevator chimed.
Victor Hale stepped into the lobby.
He moved with the relaxed confidence of a man entering a room he believed he owned.
"Charlotte."
His voice was warm.
"Thank God you're alive."
Charlotte felt anger rise through the pain.
"You don't look surprised."
Victor's smile held.
"I've spent months looking for you."
"No."
Charlotte lifted the tablet.
"You spent months deleting me."
Victor sighed as though disappointed by her behavior.
"She's traumatized."
He looked at the officer.
"Her mother died suddenly, and Charlotte suffered a breakdown soon afterward."
Vanessa nodded with practiced sympathy.
Daniel stared at both of them.
Charlotte realized the story had been rehearsed.
Victor extended his hand.
"Give me the tablet, Charlotte."
"Why?"
"Because whoever gave it to you is manipulating you."
Charlotte unlocked one final file.
An audio waveform filled the screen.
Victor's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Charlotte saw it.
"My mother gave it to me."
She pressed play.
Eleanor Vale's voice emerged from the tablet.
"If Charlotte is hearing this, Victor Hale has already made his move."
May you like
Every face in the lobby turned toward Victor.
Then the hotel lights went out.
