Chapter 9 - VICTORIA'S DEAL
Victoria requested a meeting with prosecutors forty-eight hours later.
Mark was not invited.
He found out from Detective Chen.
"What does she want?"
"Immunity."
Mark laughed once.
"For burglary, forgery, theft, conspiracy, or all of it?"
"Her attorney hasn't specified."
"Then the answer should be no."
Chen watched him.
"That's not your decision."
Mark knew she was right.
He still hated hearing it.
Victoria spent six hours inside the district attorney's office.
When she emerged, reporters surrounded her.
She said nothing.
But the next morning, police raided a storage unit registered under a false company name.
Inside they found computers, forged corporate seals, copies of Harold's medical records, blank notarization forms, and more than four hundred thousand dollars in cash.
Samuel's fingerprints were everywhere.
Victoria's were too.
The evidence made one fact undeniable.
Victoria had been deeply involved.
Her claim that Samuel manipulated an innocent sister would never survive.
But she possessed something investigators needed.
She knew Samuel's financial network.
She knew aliases.
She knew properties.
She knew which foreign accounts he controlled.
Most importantly, she knew why Samuel had become obsessed with Bennett Holdings.
Daniel explained the answer to Mark.
Samuel had spent years quietly purchasing debt connected to several Bennett subsidiaries.
If Victoria became controlling shareholder, she planned to appoint Samuel chief executive.
He would restructure the company.
The restructuring would allow shell corporations controlled by Samuel to acquire valuable Bennett assets at artificially low prices.
Victoria thought she would become queen of the family empire.
Samuel planned to strip the empire around her.
Mark shook his head.
"She thought she was using him."
Daniel nodded.
"And he thought he was using her."
"Sounds like they deserved each other."
There was still a problem.
The probate hearing was approaching.
Victoria had not withdrawn her forged inheritance claim.
Mark could not understand why.
Then Daniel received her new filing.
Victoria argued that the Founder's Covenant was invalid.
Her attorneys claimed the document had never been properly incorporated into the later corporate structure.
If the judge agreed, Sophie's controlling interest could be challenged for years.
Mark slammed the filing onto his desk.
"She gives police evidence against Samuel while continuing to steal from Sophie."
Daniel looked unsurprised.
"Victoria cooperates when it helps Victoria."
Mark turned toward the window.
"How do we stop this?"
"Evidence."
"We have the covenant."
"We need proof your father intended it to remain active."
Mark remembered Harold's video.
"He mentioned the trust."
"Not the covenant."
"Gerald?"
"Useful, but his credibility is damaged."
Mark rubbed his forehead.
"Then what?"
Daniel thought carefully.
"Your father kept everything."
"Receipts."
"Letters."
"Old contracts."
"If Harold intended to activate the covenant, he probably documented it."
Mark knew where they needed to search.
The Bennett mansion.
Police had already processed the study.
But they had been looking for evidence of burglary and forgery.
Not corporate history.
Mark and Daniel returned that afternoon.
Sophie came too, accompanied by Caroline and security.
While adults searched shelves, Sophie wandered near Harold's desk.
She touched the wooden chair.
"I used to sit here."
Mark smiled.
"I remember."
"Grandpa let me use his stamps."
"What stamps?"
"The old ones."
She pointed toward a cabinet.
Mark opened it.
Inside were dozens of antique company seals and stamps.
Sophie reached toward the back.
"He kept my favorite one here."
Her fingers brushed a loose panel.
It shifted.
Mark froze.
He removed the panel.
Behind it was a narrow envelope.
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a signed memorandum written by Harold.
The date was three months before his death.
The first line made Daniel smile.
I HEREBY AFFIRM THE CONTINUING FORCE OF THE 1954 FOUNDER'S COVENANT.
Mark looked at Sophie.
She grinned.
"I found it."
He hugged her.
For the first time since Victoria stormed into the great hall, Mark felt they were ahead.
Then his phone rang.
Detective Chen.
Samuel Price had been found.
Not arrested.
Found.
His abandoned car was discovered near the Canadian border.
There was blood inside.
And a note on the driver's seat.
May you like
MARK BENNETT DID THIS.
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