She Laughed at His $500 Bid—Then the Auctioneer Said, “The Factory Is His.”
Chapter 2
Nobody moved.
Vivian reached for the document with fingers that suddenly felt numb.
“That signature is fake.”
Ethan didn’t react.
The auctioneer cleared his throat.
“Ms. Mercer, I assure you—”
“My father never signed anything transferring this property.”
The words came out sharper than she intended.
Across the room, Ethan slowly placed the document on the table.
“He did.”
Vivian looked at him.
“How would you know?”
“Because I was there.”
A murmur moved through the room.
Vivian’s stomach tightened.
Her father had died eighteen months earlier.
A heart attack, the doctors had said.
A funeral.
A closed casket.
A mountain of debt.
And then, three months later, the bank had announced the factory was being liquidated.
Vivian had spent every dollar she had trying to keep it alive.
She had failed.
At least, that was what she’d been told.
“You were there?” she repeated.
Ethan nodded.
“Not at the hospital.”
He slid another paper across the table.
“This was signed two days before your father died.”
Vivian stared at the page.
The signature looked exactly like her father’s.
But there was something underneath it.
A handwritten sentence.
She recognized the handwriting immediately.
Her father had written:
If Vivian comes looking for the truth, give her the red ledger.
Her breath caught.
“What red ledger?”
Ethan’s expression changed.
For the first time, something like fear crossed his face.
“You don’t have it?”
“No.”
“Then someone else does.”
The auctioneer glanced nervously toward the exit.
A man in a gray suit had already left the room.
Vivian noticed.
She had seen him before.
At her father’s funeral.
Standing far behind everyone else.
Watching.
Ethan closed the folder.
“We need to leave.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the empty doorway.
“Because whoever took that ledger knows your father didn’t die with his company.”
A crash came from the hallway.
Everyone turned.
The lights went out.
