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“Mediocre fits nicely,” Valentine supplied, stretching his legs out under the table like he owned the place.
“Yes.” I pointed from him to the notetaker. “Write that down. Greg Winchester, really George Winchester, is a mediocre man, and I refused him.”
Greg gripped the edge of the table. “Don’t write that. We need to get on with this meeting.”
“So I stop talking?” I produced a happy smile. “But I have so much to say.”
The chairman peered over his glasses at me. “It appears to me you have a point to make, Miss Walsh. Please proceed so we can get on.”
“The agenda,” Greg snarled. “That’s what your job is here, Peter. Don’t waste our time. Get to the vote.”
I centred myself and readied my stunning blow. “By all means, but it seems a little futile to vote when there’s just one eligible party.”
A commotion broke out.
Peter held up a hand. “Do you mean your daughter is that only eligible voter? Therefore you as her proxy?”
“Exactly. And I have proof.” I took the envelope from my bag and slid it down the table to Peter.
He opened it and pulled out the will, a copy of Tobi’s birth certificate with Greg Senior’s name on it, and the other record I’d found. The one where Vanissa, George, and SimonJohnsonwere named.
“George Johnson,” the chairman read the words I’d highlighted.
Greg jumped to his feet. “You can’t do this. Ignore that. It’s irrelevant.”
Next to him, Simon lifted his phone to his ear. “Mum, she knows.”
Under the table, Valentine’s hand slid to my thigh. Squeezed.
Victory suffused me, so close I could almost taste it. From the moment the mis-naming by Molly’s aunt had clued me in, through the evening of phone calls and research, and a chat with Scarlet to make sure I’d made no missteps, I’d finally discovered the truth they’d been hiding. The reason they were trying to rob my daughter of all she was due.
“Miss Walsh,” Peter said over the fuss. “Could you please explain to me precisely what I’m looking at?”
“Happy to.” I indicated to Simon. “Is that your mom? Put her on loudspeaker, please.”
He froze then tapped the screen.
“Mia, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Vanissa snapped.
“Me? I’ve done nothing. You, on the other hand, lied through your teeth for years. You already had two kids when you married Greg Senior, neither in any way a blood relative to him. I found several references to you as a family unit long before Tobi’s father came on the scene. You were the Johnsons. You ran the parent-teacher association which gave me a nice repository of information on your previous life. Then Greg Senior came along, married you so you all changed your surnames, and you relied on the fact he called your boys his sons to actually make them so after his death. Nobody here knew, am I right? Nobody once questioned how the Winchester boys were suddenly taking over.”
I drew a breath, my heart racing, then continued. “You know, if you’d have been honest, there would be no issue here. Greg Senior raised your children as his own. Even though he didn’t adopt them, he presumably let you change George’s name to Greg in honour of him. I would’ve expected him to want them to share in his estate, and yet his will wrote them off. They got nothing. Not any part of the business. Not one penny, despite how long he knew them. Why is that? Remember, it’s fraud to misrepresent yourself in a proceeding such as this. I believe it comes with hefty jail time.”
“You… I mean…” Loud on the phone line, Vanissa tried and failed to continue a sentence.
Simon took a short breath then said in a rush, “Mum cheated on our dad with our stepdad. The two men hated each other and never agreed on anything. The divorce, definitely not George’s name change. I mean Greg’s. He just used it then changed it himself at eighteen.”
“Simon!” his brother chided.
“Wait, they couldn’t agree on a divorce? Vanissa and Greg Senior weren’t even married?” I said in shock.
It painted a new picture again. One where Greg Senior’s kind care for our newborn daughter spoke of him having an heir at last. Where his homelife wasn’t as settled as at first glance. Had he got me pregnant on purpose? If he’d lived, I wondered if he would’ve confessed it.
“No, they were, but there was a prenup so our dad couldn’t get his hands on?—”
“Greg, stop your brother’s blathering mouth,” Vanissa started.
I took a calming inhale, letting years of her superiority over me wash away. “It all makes so much sense now, Vanissa. If I’d known the truth, I wouldn’t have objected to you contesting the will. But you tried to con Tobi out of her rightful inheritance. You tried everything under the sun to control us, and in doing so made my life miserable. You bet your ass I’ll fight you now. You don’t have a leg to stand on.”
