Chapter 12 - THE DEED THEY TRIED TO STEAL
The forged deed appeared at 6:00 the next morning.
Crownbridge filed it with a New York court.
According to the document, Bennett Global had transferred development rights beneath the Monarch Grand eighteen months earlier.
Signed by Charlotte.
Notarized.
Witnessed.
Legally devastating.
Also completely fake.
Charlotte stared at her signature.
It was perfect.
Marcus examined it.
“Digital signature replication.”
“How?”
“Someone accessed your executive certificate.”
“Who had access?”
“Three people.”
Charlotte.
Marcus.
And Adrian.
Adrian denied everything.
Then Crownbridge obtained a temporary injunction preventing Bennett Global from selling, transferring, or altering Monarch property rights.
The shareholder vote moved forward.
Charlotte needed the original founding trust.
Without it, Adrian might win long enough to complete the merger.
They searched the underground archive.
Nothing.
Then Ethan remembered Henry’s final words.
“If Charlotte ever needs the Monarch, tell her the hotel remembers its first guest.”
First guest.
The Monarch opened May 3, 1929.
Guest Number One was not a celebrity.
It was founder Samuel Bennett.
Room 801.
The room no longer existed.
After renovations, 801 had become part of the Presidential Library.
Charlotte entered.
Old wood paneling.
Fireplace.
Bookshelves.
She examined the original guest register displayed behind glass.
Samuel Bennett.
May 3, 1929.
Beside his signature:
A hotel is land wearing hospitality as a disguise.
Charlotte smiled.
Her great-grandfather had loved riddles.
She looked at the fireplace.
The marble carving depicted Manhattan.
One building was marked with a small brass star.
The Monarch.
Charlotte pressed it.
A panel opened.
Inside sat a metal cylinder.
Marcus exhaled.
“You people are exhausting.”
Charlotte almost laughed.
Inside the cylinder was the original development trust.
Unaltered.
Recorded in 1928.
The underground rights could never be transferred without approval from seventy-five percent of the Bennett family trust.
Adrian’s proposed merger was impossible without Charlotte.
They had him.
Then Marcus noticed something else.
An amendment.
Dated seventeen years earlier.
Signed by Elizabeth Bennett.
It gave Adrian conditional authority over the development trust if Charlotte became “legally incapable, financially compromised, or subject to spousal coercion.”
Charlotte stared.
Adrian had built his current case around all three.
May you like
The amendment designed to protect Charlotte could be used to remove her.
And her mother had signed it.
