Chapter 7 - THE MISTAKE
The mistake came at a charity gala — the same kind of event where Alex had first approached Veronika three years earlier, all confidence and impeccable tailoring.
He arrived with his new companion on his arm, freshly announced as his fiancée, and gave a toast to "new beginnings" that made even his own lawyer wince. Cameras captured every word. Reporters, still fascinated by the tragic young widower turned business titan, printed it the next morning under a headline about resilience and second chances.
Veronika watched the footage from a private screening room Ingrid had arranged, her face unreadable.
"He's rushing," Ingrid said. "He wants to marry her before probate closes completely. He wants it locked down."
"Then let's lock him down first," Veronika said.
She had Ingrid file, quietly, a formal request for a forensic audit of the estate — not as Veronika Aldrich, deceased, but under the shell company that had spent six months buying back everything Alex was so eager to sell. As a major shareholder in three of his newly acquired companies, the shell had every legal right to demand the books be opened.
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Alex, confident and unbothered, agreed to the audit without reading the fine print. He had no reason to think the request came from anywhere but a nervous new investor.
He did not recognize the auditor's signature at the bottom of the request. He had never learned to read his dead wife's handwriting closely enough to notice she had signed it herself.
