Chapter 15 - THE CALL FROM APARTMENT 4101
The investigators separated Franklin, Brittany, and Alexander for questioning.
The wedding guests were finally dismissed.
Some left quietly.
Others remained outside the estate gates, speaking to reporters who had arrived after videos of the pond incident spread online.
Brittany removed her veil before entering the investigators’ temporary office.
She did not look at Austin.
Franklin requested an attorney.
Alexander agreed to provide testimony in exchange for formal protection and access to any evidence concerning his parents.
Austin remained in the empty reception room with Howard and Loretta.
The white flowers looked different now.
Not beautiful.
Artificial.
Like decorations placed over something rotten.
Austin approached Loretta.
“I’m sorry.”
She looked at him.
“For which part?”
His eyes lowered.
“All of it.”
“That is not specific enough.”
“For signing the document. For lying. For believing Brittany because it was easier than admitting I was angry with Dad.”
Howard stood near the window but said nothing.
Austin continued.
“And for leaving you in the water.”
Loretta tightened the dry coat Elena had brought her.
“You did not push me.”
“No. But I watched you fall and chose not to help.”
“Yes.”
Austin looked close to tears, but Loretta did not rescue him from the silence.
“I kept telling myself it was just one mistake,” he said. “Then every mistake needed another one.”
“That is how dishonesty grows.”
“Can you forgive me?”
Loretta looked at her son for a long time.
“I love you.”
Austin waited.
“That is not the same as forgiving you today.”
He nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t. But perhaps one day you will.”
Howard approached them.
“The apartment transfer will be challenged. The financing is frozen. The company accounts are protected.”
Austin looked at his father.
“What happens to me?”
“You cooperate with the investigation.”
“And at the company?”
“You no longer work there.”
Austin absorbed the answer.
“You’re firing me.”
“I am removing access you repeatedly misused.”
“Will I ever get it back?”
“That will depend on what you build without my name protecting you.”
Austin looked hurt, but he did not argue.
For the first time that day, Loretta saw a trace of the boy he had once been.
Not innocent.
Not helpless.
Simply afraid.
Austin removed his wedding ring and placed it on the table.
“I don’t know whether the marriage is legally complete.”
Naomi entered the room.
“It is.”
Brittany and Austin had signed their marriage license before the ceremony.
The document was valid.
Austin stared at the ring.
“Then I need a lawyer.”
“You do,” Howard said.
Naomi also confirmed that the Manhattan apartment transfer had been frozen by court order.
L.M. Holdings could not sell, finance, or alter the property while ownership was disputed.
The Boston penthouse had been similarly restricted.
The immediate threat to Miller Urban Development was contained.
Franklin’s financing scheme had failed.
Brittany faced an investigation into identity theft, document fraud, and conspiracy.
The wedding was over.
The money was stopped.
The apartment was protected.
It should have felt like victory.
It did not.
Naomi placed her laptop on the table.
“We still need to open the encrypted trust attachment.”
Howard looked toward the door.
“Not tonight.”
Loretta studied him.
“The password is a date.”
“I know.”
“You know which date.”
Howard did not deny it.
“The day I ended my engagement to Eleanor.”
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you end it?”
Howard looked toward the white flowers outside.
“I believed she had stolen from the project.”
“Did Franklin tell you that?”
“He showed me documents.”
“Forged documents?”
“I did not know that then.”
Loretta felt the old history closing around them.
“What was the date?”
Howard gave Naomi the date.
October 14, thirty-two years earlier.
Naomi entered the numbers.
The attachment opened.
It contained only one file.
A video.
The recording was old and poorly lit. A young woman sat in front of the camera.
Laura Mercer.
Eleanor Price.
Loretta’s mother.
She looked directly into the lens.
“Howard, if this recording has opened, then Loretta has discovered the trust.”
Loretta stopped breathing.
Her mother continued.
“You will want to tell her that you knew nothing. Part of that will be true.”
Howard stepped closer to the screen.
Laura held up a document.
“The Hawthorne money was never stolen. It was moved to protect it from Franklin Vale.”
Franklin had been telling one truth.
The foundation of Howard’s company had been built partly with Hawthorne assets.
But Laura claimed Howard had not known the money’s origin.
Daniel discovered it years later.
He and Rebecca tried to return the assets to L.M. Holdings before Franklin could seize them.
“I removed Daniel and myself from the public trust records to protect Loretta,” Laura said. “But I did not remove our ownership.”
Naomi paused the video.
“What ownership?”
Howard looked at the trust records.
“The company.”
Naomi resumed the recording.
Laura explained that the original Miller trust controlled a hidden class of ownership shares in Miller Urban Development.
The shares had never appeared in public company records because they were held through a private founding agreement.
If the agreement remained valid, Howard did not own the controlling interest in the company.
Neither did Loretta.
The controlling shares belonged to the third founder’s legal heir.
Daniel Miller.
Or, if Daniel was dead, Daniel’s son.
Alexander Reed.
Howard stared at the screen.
Loretta understood why Franklin had lured Alexander into the plan.
He had not merely needed someone capable of transferring property.
He had needed Alexander close enough to claim the company.
Laura’s final words came through the speakers.
“Do not trust the person who brings Alexander to you. And do not assume Alexander is Daniel’s only child.”
The video ended.
No one moved.
Austin looked at Howard.
“Daniel had another child?”
Howard shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Naomi checked the file metadata.
The video had been modified six months earlier.
Someone had added seventeen seconds to the end.
She recovered the hidden segment.
Laura reappeared, but she was no longer alone.
A man stood behind the camera.
Only his hand was visible as he placed a key on the table.
The key carried a silver tag.
4101.
The Manhattan apartment number.
Laura looked frightened.
“If the apartment has been transferred, then he has already returned.”
The screen went black.
At that exact moment, Loretta’s phone rang.
The caller identification displayed the private line installed inside the $2.5 million apartment.
Naomi whispered, “The property is sealed. No one should be inside.”
Howard answered on speaker.
For several seconds, there was only breathing.
Then a man spoke.
“Hello, Howard.”
Howard gripped the edge of the table.
Loretta saw recognition in his eyes.
“Daniel?”
The man laughed softly.
“You gave my apartment to the wrong son.”
The call ended.
Naomi immediately contacted the officers guarding the building.
Their response arrived less than a minute later.
The apartment door was locked from the inside.
The security cameras had stopped recording at midnight.
And someone had left a new deed on the kitchen counter.
The document transferred the apartment to an unnamed beneficiary.
May you like
Where the owner’s identity should have appeared, there was only one sentence.
Ask Loretta what her mother buried beneath Hawthorne Estate.
