Chapter 10 - Samuel’s Confession
Claire recognized the signature.
That terrified her.
Naomi displayed the document on a large screen.
DECLARATION OF SAMUEL EDWARD BELLAMY
The statement admitted Samuel diverted Bellamy Estate funds in 1994.
It said Edward confronted him legitimately.
It said Samuel voluntarily surrendered his shares.
It said Marcus had done nothing wrong.
And it asked that “my daughter, Claire Bennett, leave the Bellamy family in peace.”
Claire read it twice.
“No.”
Marcus asked carefully, “Is that his signature?”
“Yes.”
Her voice broke.
“Yes.”
Adrian looked almost relieved.
Vivian did not.
Claire walked toward the screen.
“Dad would never call me Claire Bennett in a letter.”
Marcus frowned.
“What would he call you?”
“Claire Samuels Bennett if he was being formal.”
She kept reading.
“And he would never write ‘leave the Bellamy family in peace.’”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because he didn’t think of himself as outside the Bellamy family.”
Naomi said, “The document was notarized in Oregon.”
“By whom?”
“Karen Volpe.”
Claire immediately searched the name.
A mobile notary in Eugene.
The notarization appeared real.
Marcus said, “Then maybe Graham got Samuel to sign something else.”
Claire looked at him.
“The same way your signature ended up on the waiver.”
Forensic examination would take time.
They went to Oregon.
Karen Volpe remembered Samuel.
“He was sick.”
Claire sat opposite her.
“What did he sign?”
“An estate-planning acknowledgment.”
“Did you read it?”
“No. I verified identity and witnessed the signature.”
“How many pages?”
“Three or four.”
The “confession” was one page.
Karen frowned when Naomi showed it to her.
“That isn’t the document.”
“Are you certain?”
“The page I notarized had a blue footer from a law office.”
“Which office?”
“Voss Fiduciary Services.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Graham had obtained Samuel’s genuine signature during some other transaction.
“Did Samuel know who you were working for?”
“I assumed so.”
Claire knew he had been terminally ill.
Fear entered her.
“What did Graham make him sign?”
Back in Napa, Eleanor answered.
“A release.”
Marcus stared.
“You knew?”
“Graham told me Samuel had finally accepted a settlement.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“Before Samuel died?”
“Yes.”
Claire felt betrayed by a dead man.
“How much?”
“One-point-five million.”
Claire turned to Lydia.
“Mom?”
Lydia looked devastated.
“I didn’t know.”
Naomi obtained banking records through Samuel’s estate authority.
A deposit had been made.
$1.5 million.
Three weeks before Samuel died.
Claire stared at the account.
“He took the money.”
Lydia shook her head.
“Samuel would have told me.”
“He didn’t.”
“Then something is wrong.”
The money had remained untouched.
Not one dollar spent.
Marcus said, “Where did it go after his death?”
Claire checked.
Still there.
Samuel had not hidden it.
He had not given it away.
He had simply received it.
Naomi found the original release in Graham’s court filing.
Samuel acknowledged payment in exchange for relinquishing “all personal claims against Graham Voss arising from professional representation rendered before January 1, 1995.”
Claire frowned.
“Personal claims against Graham.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Not ownership rights.”
“No.”
The release said nothing about Bellamy Estate shares.
Graham had used Samuel’s signature from that document to create the confession.
Another forgery.
But why had Samuel accepted $1.5 million from Graham?
Lydia knew.
She began crying.
“Medical bills.”
Claire turned.
“What?”
“Your father’s heart condition was worse than he told you.”
“I knew.”
“No. You knew about the cardiomyopathy.”
Lydia wiped her face.
“He also had kidney failure.”
Claire stared.
“He refused dialysis near the end.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He asked me not to.”
Claire stood.
Another family silence.
Another person protecting her with a lie.
She laughed once, bitterly.
“Apparently everyone in my life thinks lying is love.”
Lydia flinched.
Claire regretted it immediately.
But the pain remained.
Naomi said, “Graham may have offered the settlement because Samuel threatened him.”
Marcus looked toward Samuel’s journals.
One final notebook had not been read fully.
Claire opened entries from three months before Samuel died.
A line stood out:
G.V. finally called. Says he wants peace. There is no peace without the stock book.
Two weeks later:
He says he’ll pay for silence. I told him I’ll take his money if it helps Claire fight him later.
Claire stopped.
Her father had accepted the money deliberately.
Not surrender.
Funding.
A final weapon.
The next entry read:
He thinks illness made me weak. It made me impatient.
Claire laughed through tears.
“That sounds like Dad.”
Marcus smiled faintly.
Then she reached the last written page.
Samuel had written only one sentence.
The stock book is where Edward could see his kingdom but never touch it.
Marcus read it.
Claire asked, “What does that mean?”
He did not know.
Lydia did.
Her face changed.
“The founder’s room.”
Marcus frowned.
“There is no founder’s room.”
May you like
Lydia looked toward Bellamy Estate’s oldest stone building.
“There used to be.”
