Chapter 12 - The Shadow in the Mirror
Claire immediately instructed her legal team to freeze all corporate registry transfers while she sought answers. Her first suspicion fell upon Evan Rowan.
Was it possible that Evan had been orchestrating a long-con from behind bars?
The following morning, Claire flew back to Texas and made an unannounced visit to the Travis County Correctional Complex. When the guards led Evan into the visiting room, Claire was stunned.
Evan looked fifty years old instead of thirty-eight. His hair was streaked with gray, his shoulders were slumped, and he wore thick glasses to read. He was currently working as a quiet prison librarian, having relinquished all ambitions of wealth or power.
When Evan saw Claire, he blinked in genuine shock. "Claire? Why are you here? Is... is something wrong?"
Claire slammed the Aegis Global filing onto the glass counter. "Stop playing the victim, Evan. Who gave you access to Richard’s dormant Panama trust?"
Evan picked up the paper with trembling fingers. As his eyes scanned the legal names, confusion washed over his face, followed by genuine terror.
"Claire... I swear on my life, I don't know anything about this," Evan stammered, tears forming in his eyes. "My father died with zero assets. His Panama trust was liquidated thirty years ago when your father bought the company!"
"Then whose signature is on page four?" Claire demanded.
Evan peered closely at the digital signature code. Suddenly, he dropped the paper as if it had burned his skin.
"This isn't my father's signature code," Evan whispered, horror choking his voice. "This is the private encryption code used by my mother... and her secret legal advisor thirty years ago."
Claire froze. "Margaret had a secret advisor?"
"Yes," Evan gasped. "Before my father died, my mother was having a secret affair with an attorney. He was the one who drafted the fake wills and managed her off-shore accounts. I never knew his name... but he promised her he would take care of the family if anything ever happened to my father."
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Claire felt an icy dread creep down her spine. The puppet master who had controlled the Rowan family was never Margaret or Evan.
It was a man who had been standing in the room with Claire for fifteen years.
