“Sign here, here, and here on the back page, dear,” she instructed, her voice dripping in saccharine poison. “This irrevocably transfers the holding company and the commercial warehouse deeds to Derek’s management firm.”
I looked down at the papers. I didn’t reach for the pen. I let my hands rest in my lap, purposefully making them tremble slightly.
“I don’t know, Evelyn,” I whispered, feigning deep reluctance, staring at the lines of legalese. “My father built these properties from nothing. He wanted me to run the gyms. He wanted me to keep the properties in my name.”
Evelyn sighed, a harsh, patronizing sound. “Oh, Maya. Grief makes women so terribly scatterbrained. The commercial real estate market is vicious. It’s a man’s world. You need a strong man to manage your father’s legacy so you can focus on healing… and on being a good, obedient wife.”
I shook my head slowly, pulling the documents a fraction of an inch closer to me, swapping them seamlessly with the watermarked duplicates Marcus had slipped into a matching folder beneath the table.
“I just… I think I need my lawyer to look at this first,” I murmured.