Chapter 8 - Natalie’s Contract
Natalie Price had negotiated with her father before she was even engaged to Victor.
Bank records proved it.
Two years earlier, Price Development Holdings created Red Cedar Land Partners.
Six months later Natalie received a letter agreement.
If she secured an enforceable option or purchase agreement on Hawthorne Ridge’s south acreage below $16 million, she would receive a success fee equal to 20% of the difference between the purchase price and an independent $25 million benchmark.
Claire calculated it.
If the land sold for $14.5 million, Natalie could make approximately $2.1 million.
Victor had never mentioned the agreement.
When Claire confronted his lawyer with it, Victor called within an hour.
“She told me it was a consulting fee.”
Claire put him on speaker with Eleanor present.
“For what?”
“Bringing buyer and seller together.”
“Seller? My mother never agreed to sell.”
Victor went silent.
Eleanor said:
“She used you.”
“Stop.”
“She told you I stole from Rebecca, then offered you a way to ‘take back’ land while she collected two million dollars.”
“You don’t know everything.”
“Then tell me.”
Victor disconnected.
Natalie’s own debt added pressure.
Her failed event business owed a private lender $1.3 million.
The loan matured in three months.
Her Red Cedar fee would cover it.
Claire began to see the structure.
Victor wanted control and vindication.
Natalie wanted cash and land access.
Thomas wanted his old theft hidden.
Different motives.
One conspiracy.
Then Claire’s team found another payment.
$250,000 from Price Development to a consulting company owned by Thomas Mercer’s adult son.
Thomas claimed it was unrelated.
The son had performed no documented work.
Claire’s anger sharpened.
Blackmail was not Thomas’s only motive.
He had been paid too.
When confronted, Thomas amended his statement.
He admitted accepting money.
“It was supposed to repay what I owed.”
Eleanor’s voice shook.
“You stole money, then accepted more money to hide the theft?”
Thomas looked down.
“I was desperate.”
“That word has become very popular.”
He flinched.
Claire asked:
“Did you intentionally prescribe medication to impair her?”
Thomas hesitated.
His lawyer leaned close.
Then Thomas said:
“I knew the lorazepam could make her appear worse.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“Did Natalie ask you to prescribe it?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you agree?”
Thomas stared at the table.
“Because Victor had James’s file.”
“And the money?”
“Yes.”
Claire continued.
“Did you tell Natalie to give Eleanor diphenhydramine?”
“No.”
“Victor?”
“No.”
“Did you know anyone was supplementing the medication?”
“No.”
Possibly true.
Possibly not.
The next development came from the emerald brooch card.
Video number thirty-two showed Natalie alone in Eleanor’s study six weeks earlier.
She searched drawers.
Photographed trust documents.
Then she found James’s old jewelry inventory.
She whispered to herself:
“Brooch.”
The camera caught her smiling.
She knew something was hidden there.
But apparently not what.
The next clip showed Victor joining her.
Natalie said:
“If James put the Rebecca proof anywhere, it’s in one of Eleanor’s sentimental pieces.”
Victor asked:
“And if Claire gets here first?”
Natalie answered:
“Then we make sure Eleanor has already signed.”
Claire paused.
“Rebecca proof.”
Eleanor frowned.
“They thought the brooch held something about Rebecca.”
Instead, it contained the camera card exposing them.
James had unintentionally protected Eleanor years after his death.
But Claire noticed another detail.
In the video, Natalie placed something in Eleanor’s desk before leaving.
They zoomed in.
A small envelope.
Mason checked the desk.
It was still there.
Inside were photographs.
Eleanor asleep in a chair.
Eleanor stumbling outside the stable.
Eleanor looking disoriented.
On the back, dates and times.
Someone had been constructing an incapacity file inside Eleanor’s own study.
Then Claire found one handwritten note.
After 9/14 dose: slurring at dinner.
Another:
9/21: repeat question twice. V recorded.
Eleanor stared.
“V.”
Victor.
Natalie had created a schedule.
Medication.
Observation.
Documentation.
Claire whispered:
“They weren’t waiting for decline.”
“They were producing it.”
The court received the evidence.
Patricia Sloan’s position shifted dramatically.
She recommended dismissal of Victor’s guardianship petition unless independent evidence emerged.
But before the judge ruled, Victor’s lawyers filed something new.
An audio recording.
Eleanor’s voice.
Angry.
Clear.
Threatening.
“If Victor tries to take Hawthorne Ridge from me, I will make sure he leaves with nothing. I’ll destroy every inheritance he thinks he has.”
Eleanor remembered saying it.
Claire stared at her.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“To whom?”
“Natalie.”
The recording continued.
Eleanor:
“I should have cut him off years ago.”
Victor’s lawyers argued Eleanor was vindictive and financially abusive toward her nephew.
Not proof of incapacity.
But potentially relevant to motive and estate changes.
Eleanor looked at Claire.
“I was furious.”
“I know.”
“I meant it.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“That does not help.”
Eleanor’s flaw had entered the case.
Her anger.
Her use of money as punishment.
Her tendency to control people by deciding what they deserved.
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Victor had betrayed her.
But Eleanor had given his lawyers material because, long before the stable, she had been willing to weaponize inheritance too.
