Lucas noticed.
“What was that?” Ethan asked.
Claire looked confused. “The deed?”
“Did you ever sign a transfer?”
“No.”
“Did Grant ask you to?”
“He said he was restructuring our assets for tax reasons. I signed several documents while I was sick during my first trimester.”
Lucas opened his laptop.
Within thirty minutes, he found that the Beverly Hills property had been transferred into a holding company controlled solely by Grant. Claire’s signature appeared on the filing.
The notarization was dated on a day Claire had been receiving treatment in San Diego.
“He forged it,” she whispered.
Lucas continued searching.
The deeper he went, the worse it became.
Grant had created trusts, shell companies, and private accounts. He had purchased Madison a condominium in West Hollywood using money from a charitable housing fund. More than four million dollars had disappeared from a nonprofit that was supposed to renovate low-income apartment buildings.
Ethan stared at the figures.
“This is bigger than the assault.”
“It is connected,” Lucas said. “Men like Grant do not divide their cruelty into separate categories. He controls people the way he controls money.”
That afternoon, Rachel gave Lucas another piece of evidence.
A body camera used by hospital security had been left on a counter during the aftermath. It recorded Grant speaking to an administrator outside Claire’s room.
Make her discharge voluntary. I don’t care how you do it.
Then came the administrator’s reply.
And the nurse?
Grant answered without hesitation.
Find out what she wants. Everyone wants something.
Lucas sent the recording to the district attorney.
Within an hour, Pacific Crest announced an independent investigation. Two administrators were placed on leave. The hospital removed Grant’s name from its website, though the brass plaque remained on the wall.
Grant’s board of directors called an emergency meeting.
His company’s stock fell eleven percent before the market closed.
Madison watched the collapse from Grant’s penthouse.
She had expected scandal. She had even expected hatred.
She had not expected Grant to blame her.
“You recorded the hospital,” he said.
“I recorded myself walking in.”
“You tagged the location.”
“I deleted it.”
“Too late.”
He threw her phone across the room. It shattered against the marble fireplace.
Madison recoiled.
Grant stepped closer.
“You wanted people to know you were with me. Congratulations. Now they know.”
His own phone rang.
It was his mother.
Grant had not spoken to Margaret Holloway in six years.
He nearly ignored the call.
Instead, he answered.
“What do you want?”
Her voice was steady.
“To see whether there is anything left of the son I raised.”
“Don’t pretend you care.”
“I care about Claire. I care about that baby. And I care about the thousands of families whose money you stole.”
Grant froze.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m coming to Los Angeles.”
“For what?”
“To give Claire something she should have received years ago.”
The line went dead.
Grant stared at the phone.
For the first time since the scandal began, he was not worried about public opinion.
He was worried about what his mother had kept.
PART 4 — THE WOMAN HE TRIED TO CALL CRAZY
Grant’s attorneys filed for emergency guardianship the next morning.
Their petition claimed Claire was experiencing severe prenatal delusions and posed a danger to herself and her unborn child. It requested that Grant be given authority over her medical decisions and immediate custody after the baby’s birth.
The filing reached Lucas at 6:12 a.m.
He read it twice before waking Claire.
She was sitting upright when he entered, eating ice chips while Rachel checked the fetal monitor.
“Grant is trying to declare you mentally incompetent,” Lucas said.
Claire closed her eyes.
“He told me he would.”