The parchment inside was thick and yellowed, bearing the official seal of the state land registry from 1920.

It was the original deed to Aster Hall and the surrounding five thousand acres.

My eyes scanned the elegant cursive script at the bottom of the page.

The property was held in an indivisible trust, passed solely to the direct maternal line of the Bennett family.

My mother had never transferred the title to the Ashford holding company.

The documents Harrison had shown me months ago were sophisticated forgeries.

I took several high-resolution photos of the deed, making sure the seals and signatures were perfectly clear.

Next, I reached for the plastic-wrapped ledger.

The cover was embossed with the logo of the Ashford Development Group.

I flipped it open.

The pages were filled with columns of figures, offshore bank routing numbers, and shell company names.

One name appeared repeatedly: *Whitaker Holdings*.

Sloane’s family name.

There were entries detailing transfers of millions of dollars from the Bennett Trust into offshore accounts.

Each transfer was authorized by a signature that forged my own, alongside Harrison’s genuine signature.