Chapter 2 - Elena's Thirty-One Percent)
Megan waited until Grant was home before entering his office.
She almost told him everything that night.
Almost.
Grant was sitting behind his desk answering emails when she knocked.
"Come in."
Megan carried Noah's torn paper in her pocket.
"Do you have a minute?"
Grant looked at the clock.
"Of course."
Then his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression changed.
"Sorry. It's Houston. Give me five minutes."
Megan nodded.
As she stepped out, Claire appeared at the far end of the corridor.
Watching her.
Megan's courage vanished.
Five minutes became forty.
By the time Grant finished his call, Noah had woken from a nightmare.
The conversation never happened.
The next morning, Grant left before sunrise.
Megan decided she could no longer wait for the perfect moment.
She began searching for answers herself.
The torn paper contained a document identification number.
VT-ELV-2009-31.
Megan knew the initials had significance.
Elena Louise Vance.
The number thirty-one matched the percentage Noah had inherited.
She went to Elena's old study while Claire was at a spa appointment.
The door was locked.
Megan still had an emergency household key from Elena's final months.
It opened the room.
Dust floated in the morning sunlight.
Megan went directly to the desk.
She remembered Elena sitting there during chemotherapy, wrapped in a gray blanket while Noah played with wooden trains on the rug.
Elena had talked openly about the trust once.
Not because Megan was involved in it.
Because Elena had been afraid.
"If Grant remarries one day, I want Noah protected without making the new woman his enemy."
Megan had smiled sadly.
"You're thinking ten years ahead."
"I'm a mother. That's what we do."
"What are you protecting him from?"
"Not a person. Pressure."
Elena had explained that the Vance family company could become dangerous whenever ownership and emotion mixed.
Her shares would pass to Noah.
Grant would not control them.
Neither would any future spouse.
Professional trustees would hold voting authority until Noah reached twenty-five, except under narrowly defined conditions.
At the time, the conversation had seemed painfully unnecessary.
Now Megan wished she remembered every word.
She searched the desk.
Nothing.
Then she noticed the lower cabinet.
Its lock had been broken.
Inside, several folders were missing.
Only dust outlines remained.
Someone had taken them recently.
Megan photographed the empty cabinet.
Then she heard the front door downstairs.
Claire was home early.
Megan hurried out.
She had barely reached the stairs when Claire appeared below.
Their eyes met.
"Where were you?"
"Getting Noah's art supplies."
"Upstairs?"
"They were in the hall closet."
Claire stared at her for several seconds.
Then smiled.
"Of course."
That afternoon, Claire installed a camera outside Elena's study.
Megan understood the message.
She stopped searching inside the house.
Instead, she searched the people around the trust.
Elena's original attorney was Margaret Ellison, a seventy-two-year-old estate lawyer whose firm had represented the Vance family for decades.
Megan found the office number online.
She called from her car.
The receptionist answered.
"Ellison and Park."
"I need to speak with Ms. Ellison regarding the Elena Vance Trust."
A pause.
"May I ask who's calling?"
"Megan Cole. I work for Mr. Grant Vance."
Another pause.
Longer this time.
"Please hold."
Margaret Ellison came on the line less than a minute later.
Her voice was sharp and alert.
"Ms. Cole, does Grant know you're calling me?"
"No."
"Then this is unusual."
"I know."
"What's wrong?"
Megan looked through the windshield toward the mansion.
Claire was standing inside an upstairs window.
Even from the driveway, Megan could feel her watching.
"I found part of a document with Noah's name on it."
"What document?"
"It says beneficiary assignment."
Margaret went silent.
"Read me anything else."
Megan gave her the identification number.
The lawyer inhaled.
"That number should not exist outside my archive."
"What is it?"
"It's the reference code for Elena's original trust schedule."
Megan's fingers tightened around the phone.
"Could someone use it to transfer Noah's inheritance?"
"Not legally."
"Could they make it look legal?"
Margaret did not answer immediately.
When she did, her voice had changed.
"Ms. Cole, listen carefully. Do not confront anyone. Do not remove anything else from the house."
"Why?"
"Because if someone has that reference code, they have accessed sealed trust records."
"Who can do that?"
"Me. Two trustees. Grant's chief legal officer."
"And Grant?"
"Of course."
Megan thought about the man entering through the service door after midnight.
"Anyone at Vance Group?"
"Not without authorization."
"Who is the chief legal officer?"
Margaret answered.
"Julian Cross."
Megan knew the name.
Everyone around Grant knew Julian Cross.
He was not only Vance Group's chief legal officer.
He was Grant's oldest friend.
They had attended the same high school.
The same university.
Julian had stood beside Grant at both of his weddings.
After Elena died, he helped Grant restructure the company so Grant could spend more time with Noah.
Grant trusted him more than almost anyone alive.
Megan closed her eyes.
"How tall is Julian Cross?"
Margaret paused.
"About six foot three. Why?"
Megan remembered the shadow leaving Grant's office.
"I think he's been coming to the house at night."
Margaret's silence told Megan more than any answer could have.
Then the lawyer said, "Bring me the paper."
Megan turned the ignition.
Before she could drive away, someone knocked on her window.
She screamed.
Claire stood beside the car.
Smiling.
Megan lowered the window two inches.
"Mrs. Vance."
Claire looked at the phone in her hand.
"Who were you talking to?"
"My sister."
"You don't have a sister."
Megan felt her heartbeat in her throat.
Claire leaned closer.
"You've become very curious lately."
"I should get Noah from school."
Claire placed one hand on the roof of the car.
"I can do that."
"It's my job."
"Not anymore."
Megan stared at her.
Claire smiled.
"Take the afternoon off."
"Did Grant say that?"
"No. I did."
Megan started the car.
Claire stepped back.
As Megan drove away, she looked in the mirror.
Claire was already making a phone call.
Megan went directly to Margaret Ellison's office.
But when she arrived, Margaret was not there.
The receptionist looked confused.
"She left twenty minutes ago."
"Where did she go?"
"She received a call from Mr. Cross."
Megan stopped breathing.
"Julian Cross?"
"Yes."
"Did she say where they were meeting?"
"No."
The receptionist lowered her voice.
"But she looked worried."
Megan reached for her phone.
Before she could call Grant, a message appeared from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph.
Noah was leaving school.
Claire stood beside him.
May you like
Under the photograph were seven words.
STOP DIGGING OR THE BOY PAYS FIRST.
