Chapter 8 - The File Anna Wanted)
Daniel refused to return to Bennett Industries without police present.
Richard called six times.
Daniel ignored every call.
On the seventh, he answered.
"What have you done?" Richard demanded.
Daniel put the phone on speaker.
"What have I done?"
"Security says you gave someone access to the executive floor."
"I didn't."
"Your badge was used."
Daniel looked at Megan.
"My badge is in my wallet."
"Then someone cloned it."
"Maybe."
Richard lowered his voice.
"Are you still chasing Anna's fantasies?"
Daniel glanced at the photograph of Lucas.
"My sister wasn't dead when you buried her."
Silence.
Megan watched Daniel's face.
"Tell me I'm wrong."
Richard did not.
"Tell me."
"You have no idea what you're involving yourself in."
Daniel's grip tightened on the phone.
"Where is Lucas?"
"Who?"
"Don't."
Richard exhaled.
"Come home alone."
"No."
"Daniel."
"Where is Lucas?"
"If you care about Megan and Sophie, stop asking questions."
Megan felt Daniel go still.
The threat was almost identical to the one from thirteen years earlier.
Daniel's voice became very calm.
"If anyone comes near my wife or daughter again, I will spend every dollar I have putting you in prison."
Richard laughed.
"You think this is about money?"
The line disconnected.
Daniel immediately called an attorney.
Her name was Natalie Cross.
She specialized in corporate litigation and family asset disputes.
By noon she had arranged a private meeting in her office.
Rachel stayed with Sophie in a secure apartment owned by Natalie's firm.
Megan hated leaving her daughter.
But Natalie said something that convinced her.
"If someone is trying to frighten you, panic is useful to them. Documentation is not."
Daniel brought Anna's letter, the photograph, the medical key card, and a copy of Lucas's photograph.
Natalie read everything twice.
"Your father controls Bennett Industries?"
"Fifty-one percent voting authority."
"You?"
"Twenty-four."
"My mother has fifteen. The rest is held through trusts."
Natalie tapped Anna's letter.
"What trust is she referring to?"
"I don't know."
"Family Continuity Trust?"
Daniel nodded.
"I've heard the name."
"Have you read it?"
"No."
Natalie looked up.
"You're an executive and beneficiary of a trust you've never read?"
"My father handles family legal structures."
"That sentence is why lawyers like me own houses."
Megan almost laughed.
The first time in two days.
Natalie searched a database.
The trust had been created by Daniel's grandfather, Samuel Bennett.
The original document was not public.
But an amendment had been recorded eighteen years earlier.
Natalie's expression changed.
"What?"
"Your grandfather divided control among three bloodline branches."
Daniel frowned.
"Three?"
"Richard. Victor. And Anna."
"Anna was a teenager."
"The trust gave future succession rights to descendants."
Megan understood first.
"Lucas."
Natalie nodded.
"If Anna had a child, that child may have inherited her share."
Daniel leaned back.
"How much?"
"Potentially one third of controlling family assets."
Silence.
Megan whispered, "That's why Richard wanted him."
Natalie kept reading.
"Maybe."
"What do you mean?"
"There is another condition."
"What?"
"Any beneficiary declared legally deceased before age twenty-five transfers interim voting control to the trustee."
"Who was trustee?"
Natalie scrolled.
"Richard Bennett."
Daniel stared at her.
"So when Anna died..."
"Richard gained temporary control of her share."
"And Lucas?"
"If Lucas existed and Anna's share descended to him, Richard may have been required to relinquish that control."
Megan felt sick.
"So he hid Lucas."
Natalie held up a hand.
"We don't have evidence proving motive."
"We have a fake death."
"We have evidence suggesting a false public death. That is different from proving Richard caused it."
Daniel stood.
"What's in my office?"
Natalie looked at him.
"Excuse me?"
"Lucas broke into my office. If he knows about the trust, maybe Anna hid something there."
"Thirteen years ago?"
"The office used to belong to my grandfather."
Natalie closed her laptop.
"Then we go with security and counsel."
The executive floor smelled faintly of cleaning solution.
Daniel's office door had scratches around the lock.
Nothing obvious was missing.
He searched drawers.
Cabinets.
Shelves.
Megan looked at the old wooden desk.
"Was this your grandfather's?"
"Yes."
She crouched.
The underside showed a small circular mark near one leg.
A plug.
Daniel knelt.
He pried it loose.
Inside the hollow desk leg was a rolled document wrapped in plastic.
Natalie put on gloves.
"Do not touch it."
The paper was old.
Handwritten on the first page:
For Anna, if Richard tries to take the company.
Daniel looked at Megan.
His grandfather had hidden it.
Natalie carefully unfolded the pages.
It was a signed codicil.
Samuel Bennett had anticipated conflict between his sons.
It stated that if either Richard or Victor interfered with the rights of another family beneficiary through fraud, coercion, concealment, or false declaration of death, that person's controlling share would be forfeited.
Transferred to whom?
Natalie read the last paragraph.
"To the harmed beneficiary or their living descendants."
Daniel whispered one name.
"Lucas."
The office door slammed shut behind them.
May you like
A lock clicked.
Then smoke began pouring through the ventilation grille.
