CHAPTER 3: THE WILL FROM A SAFE THAT HAD BURNED
Curtis’s attorney tried to regain control.
He stood with a document in his hand and the stiff confidence of a man walking toward a trap he could not yet see.
“Your Honor, military service does not settle the estate dispute. We have a notarized statement from the late Thomas Wright, executed six months before his death.”
The monitor lit up with my father’s signature.
Bold.
Steady.
Perfect.
Too perfect.
The statement claimed I had exploited Dad’s cancer, manipulated him into changing his will, and built a fake military identity to win sympathy from Titan’s board.
Elaine dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
Curtis looked down, pretending grief.
I remembered the night Delwyn Johnson called me from a motel outside Richmond.
Delwyn had been Dad’s executive assistant for sixteen years. She knew where every procurement approval was stored, how every signature packet was filed, and which old documents had the cleanest copies of my father’s name.
Curtis had offered her two hundred thousand dollars to create a statement that would finish me.
What Curtis did not know was that Delwyn contacted me before accepting.
She had worn a wire for three meetings.
For six weeks, Dana and I had waited. We needed Curtis to authenticate the forged statement himself under oath before we could move.
Curtis took the witness stand after his attorney called him.
His confidence had returned slightly.
A dangerous thing.
Dana stepped forward.
“Mr. Wright, where did you find this statement?”
“In my father’s private office safe.”
“When?”
“March ninth.”
“You opened the safe personally?”
“Yes.”
“No one handed you the document?”
“No.”
“You are absolutely certain?”
“Completely.”
Dana glanced at me.
I opened the black folder and removed the photograph.
She placed it on the digital monitor.
Dad’s office appeared on screen.
Blackened walls. Water-damaged carpet. A ruined desk. The wall safe hung open, its interior filled with warped metal and ash.
Dana faced the jury.
“This photograph was taken February twenty-second, after a fire suppression accident destroyed the contents of Thomas Wright’s office safe.”
A murmur spread.
Dana turned back to Curtis.
“Sixteen days before you claim you opened it.”
Curtis’s mouth opened.
No sound came.
Elaine gripped the edge of the witness stand.
Dana walked closer.
“Did you pay Delwyn Johnson to create this statement?”
“No.”
“Did you offer her two hundred thousand dollars?”
“No.”
“Did your mother help rehearse her affidavit?”
“No.”
Three lies.
Clean.
Confident.
Recorded.
Dana pressed a button.
Delwyn’s voice filled the courtroom.
Then Curtis’s.
“Make it sound like Dad hated her. Mom will handle the testimony.”
Elaine gasped.
Curtis turned toward his mother, furious.
Dana played the next clip.
Elaine’s voice followed.
“Once Iris is convicted, the shares become vulnerable. We sell Titan before she can appeal.”
The courtroom erupted.
The judge slammed the gavel.
But the noise could not cover the truth now.
General Carney leaned toward the Pentagon attorney.
The attorney placed a second sealed file on the table.
It had only two words printed on the cover.
May you like
PROJECT NIGHTFALL.
And when Curtis saw it, he stopped breathing.
