Chapter 5 - THE PAGE THEY STOLE FROM A DYING MAN
The second will was a composite document.
Its first eleven pages had been printed on Titan executive stationery four days after my father’s death. The toner contained a chemical marker introduced in a replacement cartridge installed that week.
The final page—the one bearing my father’s signature and the notary seal—was older.
Curtis’s expert argued that toner dating was imprecise and that office supplies could remain unused for months.
Our examiner found stronger evidence.
A faint line of text remained along the top edge of the signature page, almost completely concealed beneath a decorative border added to the false will.
Authorization for release of medical information.
My father had signed that page as part of a hospice packet.
Someone removed it, trimmed the upper margin, added a new border, and attached it to eleven fabricated pages.
The notary journal was also genuine.
The corresponding entry described a medical authorization, not a will. Someone had altered the electronic scan submitted to probate court, but the notary’s paper backup remained in storage.
The probate judge froze Curtis’s claim to controlling shares and appointed a neutral administrator over disputed estate assets.
She did not declare the original will valid immediately. She ordered discovery into the fabrication and referred the evidence to federal and state authorities.
It was the first major shift of power.
Curtis lost access to Titan’s boardroom.
Elaine’s settlement offer disappeared.
The next morning, federal agents searched Curtis’s home, office, and a storage unit rented through Halcyon.
They found the printer used for the false pages, practice copies of my father’s signature, and photographs of my office showing where forged military records would later be discovered.
Curtis was arrested for obstruction, evidence tampering, wire fraud, and conspiracy relating to the fabricated documents.
The judge denied the government’s request to hold him without bond but imposed home detention, electronic monitoring, passport surrender, and a prohibition against contacting witnesses or accessing Titan systems.
Elaine was not arrested.
Investigators still had to prove she participated in the will fabrication rather than merely supporting Curtis afterward.
I wanted handcuffs.
Benjamin wanted admissible evidence.
“Your mother lied in federal court,” he said. “Perjury is being reviewed. That does not prove she printed eleven pages.”
“She started Halcyon.”
“That does not prove this conspiracy.”
“She knew Commander Carney.”
“That proves she lied about your service. Criminal cases are built count by count.”
I understood the words.
Patience remained harder.
The neutral estate administrator opened my father’s sealed hospice files. Between medication charts and handwritten instructions was a note addressed to me.
Sarah—
If I lose the ability to explain, follow Halcyon through the inspection accounts. Kandar was not enemy fire alone. Ask Duane about the thermal coupler.
Do not trust the easy version of me.
—Dad
The final sentence stayed with me.
My father had known I would be tempted to turn him into the innocent victim of Elaine and Curtis.
Carney read the note in a secure room.
“What is a thermal coupler?” I asked.
“In that aircraft, it was part of the system monitoring heat transfer near the auxiliary fuel assembly.”
“Did it fail?”
“The official finding attributed the crash to combined hostile fire and catastrophic thermal failure.”
“Was the component made by Titan?”
“Titan certified the assembly. A subcontractor manufactured the coupler.”
“Halcyon?”
“I have never heard that name.”
“Dad thought the inspection accounts mattered.”
Carney rubbed a hand over his mouth.
“Three people died in that aircraft.”
I saw them without wanting to.
Chief Warrant Officer Elena Ruiz strapped into the forward seat.
Sergeant Malik Benton pushing me toward the open hatch.
Specialist Owen Price pinned beneath a collapsed support while smoke swallowed the cabin.
Carney continued.
“The recovered components were retained because the mission remained under review. No one told me Thomas suspected Titan.”
“Can we examine them?”
“Only through a classified-material request and a criminal investigation with the correct access.”
Benjamin asked how long that could take.
“Months.”
Then Carney looked at the scorched patch in my shadow box.
“There may be another way to narrow the serial range.”
The patch had been sealed with fragments from my damaged flight vest. A sliver of metal remained fused inside the burned fabric.
Under magnification, the laboratory found three partial characters.
They matched a component batch recorded in Titan’s old procurement system.
The certification vendor for that batch had been paid through Halcyon.
May you like
The inheritance fight was no longer only about who controlled Titan.
It was moving toward the wreckage that had earned me the medals Elaine called fake.
