Chapter 11 - MALCOLM’S EMPIRE COLLAPSED IN ONE WEEK
The consequences were not cinematic.
They were administrative.
Which made them harder to escape.
Eleanor obtained an urgent court order preventing any dealings with the disputed land.
HM Land Registry placed restrictions on the relevant titles while the alleged forged documents were investigated.
Ridgewell Heritage Developments froze the option arrangement immediately.
Its lawyers demanded the return of the advance money Malcolm had received.
The police economic-crime team seized financial records after reviewing the attempted removal of archive boxes.
Malcolm was interviewed under caution.
He denied forging anything.
He claimed Edward had intended the transfer.
He claimed Ruth had accepted a settlement privately.
He claimed Catherine’s papers were “domestic correspondence without legal effect”.
Then investigators showed him the solicitor’s sealed file.
His solicitor requested a break.
Hannah and Maisie moved temporarily into a guest flat at the main house because East Lodge’s locks had been interfered with twice.
Maisie chose Oliver’s old nursery as her daytime playroom.
“Bird room,” she called it.
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Oliver should have found that funny.
Instead, every sound of a child running through Harrington Hall reminded him how empty the place had been because generations of adults believed silence was safer than truth.
