Chapter 11 - Brenda’s Folder
Police obtained the security video.
Brenda denied being there.
Then she changed her story.
She claimed Tessa had invited her.
Tessa denied it.
Then building records showed Brenda had entered using a borrowed access card belonging to Frank.
The family machine was cracking.
Each lie required another lie.
Each lie pulled another relative inside.
Rebecca requested the leather folder through discovery.
Derek claimed it had been lost.
Brenda claimed she had never seen it.
My recording proved otherwise.
I remembered her standing beside the bedroom door while Derek dropped it onto the bed.
I remembered her pointing at the signature line.
I remembered her saying the unpleasantness would end if I signed.
That was no longer merely an ugly family memory.
It was evidence.
Three days after I left the mansion, Derek appeared outside my apartment.
The protective order prohibited it.
Luckily, I was staying with my parents.
My new security camera recorded him walking from window to window.
Then he tried the back door.
Then the garage.
He stayed eighteen minutes.
Police arrested him two blocks away.
He claimed he had only wanted clothes he had left before the wedding.
He had never lived in my apartment.
There were no clothes.
Inside his car, officers found a crowbar.
A pair of work gloves.
And a handwritten list.
Passport.
Trust binder.
Blue folder.
Laptop.
My name appeared at the top.
Derek was released pending further proceedings.
But now Rebecca knew what he had wanted.
“The blue folder.”
I nodded.
My grandfather’s original trust documents had once been kept in a blue binder.
Derek had seen it months earlier.
What he did not know was that the binder contained copies.
The originals were held by Rebecca’s firm.
The following afternoon, Brenda asked to meet me directly.
Rebecca said no.
Brenda asked again.
Then she offered something unexpected.
The leather folder.
In exchange, she wanted a private meeting with me.
No Derek.
No police.
No recording.
Rebecca laughed when she heard the last condition.
“That means she intends to say something worth recording.”
So we agreed.
Not to Brenda’s conditions.
To ours.
The meeting took place in a conference room inside Rebecca’s building.
Cameras recorded every angle.
Brenda entered holding the folder.
She sat across from me.
For almost a minute, neither of us spoke.
Then she smiled.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“No.”
“You think you’ve won.”
“No.”
Her smile vanished.
“You have no idea what happens if that estate disappears.”
“I know exactly what happens.”
“Families lose jobs.”
“Then perhaps Derek should not have tried to steal three million dollars.”
Brenda leaned toward me.
“You don’t understand men like my son.”
“I understand him now.”
“No, sweetheart.”
Her voice became soft.
“Derek doesn’t know how to lose.”
May you like
Then she placed the leather folder on the table.
“And neither do I.”
