Chapter 13 - The Will
I thought Karen had misunderstood.
I had met Ethan's grandfather only four times.
Arthur Whitmore was eighty-seven, stubborn, observant, and far kinder to me than the rest of the family.
He knew I worked in law.
He did not know I was a federal judge.
At least I never told him.
“He couldn't have left me control of anything,” I said.
Karen shook her head.
“Not ownership.”
“What then?”
“Trustee authority.”
Ethan stared at his sister.
“Mom has always been trustee.”
“She wasn't supposed to be.”
Karen explained that Arthur had grown suspicious during the final year of his life.
He believed Margaret was using trust assets to support failing family businesses.
He wanted an independent person controlling distributions after his death.
Someone who could not be pressured by family loyalty.
He chose me.
I felt a chill.
“Why wasn't I ever notified?”
Karen looked toward Patricia Haines.
“Because the amendment disappeared.”
Patricia had handled Arthur's estate.
Margaret remained trustee.
Everyone assumed the prior documents remained valid.
But Raymond Cole's encrypted folder contained photographs of the amendment.
Apparently Arthur had given a copy to an outside accountant.
Margaret had spent years trying to locate it.
Then I became pregnant with twins.
When she discovered one was a boy, the stakes multiplied.
If Arthur's amendment surfaced, I could become trustee.
And Noah could become beneficiary of the separate forty-eight-million-dollar legacy.
Margaret would lose control of both.
“She didn't want me because she wanted a grandson,” I said.
Karen wiped her face.
“She wanted Noah because controlling him was the last way she could control the money.”
Ethan looked physically ill.
For years he had thought his mother's obsession with family status was arrogance.
It was more calculated than that.
Daniel received another update.
Investigators had located Arthur's former accountant, Samuel Price.
He was seventy-nine and living in Arizona.
He confirmed Arthur had signed a trust amendment.
He also confirmed he had retained a copy.
My heart began pounding.
“Where is it?”
Daniel listened.
Then his expression changed.
“Mr. Price says someone contacted him yesterday asking the same question.”
“Who?”
“He wouldn't give the name over the phone.”
Daniel paused.
“But he said the caller offered him two million dollars to destroy it.”
Ethan looked toward his mother.
She had been escorted back for another interview.
She stared through the glass at us.
Then she smiled.
Not nervously.
Not defensively.
Confidently.
Daniel's phone rang again.
This time his expression turned grim.
May you like
Samuel Price's house alarm had just gone off.
And no one could reach him.
