Chapter 14 - The House by the Lake
Police found the lakeside house empty.
There were signs that someone had stayed there recently: food in the refrigerator, fresh tire tracks and a child’s blanket folded across a sofa.
Brooke was not there.
Neither was Grant.
Inside a locked cabinet, investigators discovered financial documents bearing Arthur’s signature.
He recognized some of them.
Years earlier, Grant had invested in one of Arthur’s property developments. Arthur had signed a stack of approval forms without reading every page.
One document transferred consulting rights connected to Meridian clients.
Another authorized Grant to act as Arthur’s financial representative.
The final page was different.
It assigned any “future beneficial interests” belonging to Arthur’s children to a private trust.
Arthur read it twice.
“I didn’t have children then.”
“That may be why you didn’t pay attention,” Evelyn said.
The trust was called Hawthorne Family Holdings.
Its beneficiaries were listed only by initials.
E.H.T. and O.H.T.
The twins’ full names were Ethan Holloway Thompson and Olivia Holloway Thompson.
The document had been created eighteen months before their birth.
Brooke had chosen their names after meeting Grant.
That meant the twins had been part of the plan long before she announced her pregnancy.
Victoria examined the trust’s asset schedule.
It did not contain money, property or insurance.
It contained shares.
Four percent of Meridian Technologies.
Her signature appeared beneath the transfer.
Victoria had never seen the document before.
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Yet the digital verification code was genuine.
Someone had used her authority to place part of her company in the names of children who had not yet been born.
