Chapter 10 - The Unseen Heir
I stared at the glowing screen of my phone, the blood draining from my face. The notification wasn't from the commercial court regarding Morales Design. It was an emergency probate notice from the central Madrid registry, filed under an entirely different docket number.
Mercedes noticed the shift in my expression. Her mocking smile faltered. “What is it? What did you just get?”
I looked up slowly, the satisfaction of my calculated strike suddenly overshadowed by a chilling new realization. “It’s not from your lawyers.”
“Then whose is it?” Javier demanded, stepping closer.
“It’s from the executor of my father’s personal trust,” I said, my voice barely audible over the hum of the city outside the window. “The probate court has just placed an immediate administrative freeze on all estate assets—not because of your equity claim, and not because of Vanguard Holdings.”
Mercedes frowned, genuine confusion breaking through her hardened exterior. “On what grounds?”
“On the grounds of a previously undisclosed primary beneficiary,” I said, reading the legal summary on the screen. “A codicil added to my father’s will just three days before he died, designating a fifty-percent equal division of his personal estate—including the family home, his private accounts, and his personal holdings—to an individual who has just officially come forward to claim it.”
Javier stared at me, dumbfounded. “Who? Who could possibly be ahead of you in the will?”
May you like
The heavy oak front door of the penthouse—which had remained unlocked after my entrance—creaked open softly. Footsteps echoed across the marble foyer, light and measured, followed by a calm, unfamiliar voice calling out from the hallway.
“That would be me, Clara.”
