Chapter 6 - THE TRUST
The Vale succession trust was eighty-seven pages long.
I hated every page of it.
Lawyers used phrases like beneficial interest, controlling shares, contingent transfer, and verified lineal descendant.
I saw only one sentence.
If Emilia Grace Vale was proven alive before midnight on her thirtieth birthday, she would inherit Alexandra Vale’s controlling block.
Thirty-one percent of Vale Meridian Holdings.
Enough to decide who ran the empire.
Enough to remove board members.
Enough to stop Victor Sloane from controlling the family charitable trust.
Lillian sat across from me in a conference room.
“I don’t care about the money.”
She nodded.
“I believe you.”
“You shouldn’t.”
That surprised her.
“You don’t know me.”
“No.”
She folded her hands.
“But I would like to.”
I looked through the windows at Manhattan below us.
“This family spent twenty-nine years looking for me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you find Eleanor?”
“We thought she was dead.”
“Money was being sent to her.”
“Through Sloane.”
“Did nobody audit him?”
Lillian’s face revealed the answer.
They trusted him.
Powerful families liked pretending betrayal only happened to ordinary people.
Travis arrived with three attorneys from his bank.
He was no longer representing Madison.
Apparently their relationship had ended before sunrise after the dinner.
I couldn’t imagine why.
He placed a file before us.
“My employer began due diligence on a Vale restructuring eight months ago.”
Lillian looked annoyed.
“That information is confidential.”
“Not anymore.”
Travis looked at me.
“We found inconsistencies in Sloane-controlled entities.”
“Payments to my parents?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know?”
“Not their identities.”
He hesitated.
“But I knew there was a possibility the missing heir was alive.”
I stared at him.
“How?”
“One internal memorandum suggested Sloane was making recurring payments to a guardian.”
“Guardian.”
The word made my skin crawl.
“Why were you at our dinner?”
Silence.
Travis looked toward his attorneys.
Then back at me.
“Madison told me her family had a potential inheritance issue.”
My heart dropped.
“What?”
“She asked general questions about trusts.”
Madison had known more than she admitted.
“She said her parents expected a major payment after your birthday.”
I stood.
“So you weren’t staring at me because of the pendant.”
“Not entirely.”
“You suspected.”
“I suspected someone in the Whitmore family was connected.”
“And instead of warning me, you sat there studying me.”
“Yes.”
“And laughed when my mother hit me.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
I wanted to hate him completely.
It would have been easier.
Instead, I saw what he really was.
Not a mastermind.
Not a hero.
A coward who had finally realized cowardice had consequences.
Ruiz entered the room.
“We found Charles Whitmore’s phone.”
She placed a printed message on the table.
Sent three days before dinner.
From a burner registered to a shell company.
MAKE SURE SHE HAS AN INCIDENT BEFORE MAY 18.
Second message.
WITNESSES MATTER.
Third.
THE BOYFRIEND COULD BE USEFUL.
Travis went white.
Madison’s relationship had not simply brought him into our house.
Someone had wanted him there.
Someone wanted a respected financial professional to witness me losing control.
I looked at Ruiz.
“What kind of incident?”
She handed me another document.
A draft court petition.
Petition for Emergency Guardianship of Emily Whitmore Based on Psychiatric Instability and Violent Conduct.
My photograph was attached.
My stomach turned.
They weren’t planning to kill me first.
They were planning to make me legally powerless.
May you like
And if that failed—
Charles had already prepared another option.
