Chapter 8 - What Evelyn Knew)
Grant stopped sleeping.
Claire could tell because she often found him in the kitchen before sunrise.
He would sit with coffee gone cold beside him while Noah slept upstairs.
One morning Claire joined him.
"You should sleep."
Grant smiled faintly.
"So should you."
Neither moved.
The mansion was silent.
Claire looked toward the dark windows.
"Tell me about Evelyn."
Grant's expression changed.
"What do you want to know?"
"Why Vanessa was close to her."
Grant leaned back.
"They met in college."
"Were they best friends?"
"That's what I thought."
"You don't anymore."
Grant stared into his coffee.
"Evelyn started distancing herself from Vanessa about six months before she died."
"Why?"
"She never explained."
Claire remembered the recording.
Look at Vanessa's accounts.
"Maybe she tried."
Grant looked at her.
Claire continued.
"Maybe you didn't realize she was warning you."
Pain moved through his face.
"I was working constantly."
"You had a new baby."
"That's not an excuse."
"No. It's context."
Grant stood and walked toward the window.
"Three weeks before the accident, Evelyn asked me whether I trusted Julian."
Claire listened.
"I told her yes. He had worked with me for twelve years."
"What did she say?"
"Nothing. She just nodded."
Grant laughed bitterly.
"I remember being annoyed because she wouldn't explain."
Claire felt sad for him.
"She was trying to protect you."
"Or she was afraid I'd dismiss her."
Claire did not answer.
That afternoon David arrived with news.
He had traced several transfers from Evelyn's trust.
The money had gone through shell companies controlled by Julian.
From there, a portion had entered an account connected to Vanessa.
"How much?" Grant asked.
"Three point four million total."
Claire stared.
Grant did not react.
David continued.
"There's more."
He placed a copy of Evelyn's amended trust on the desk.
"You found it?"
"At her attorney's off site archive."
Grant opened the document.
David pointed to a section.
"When Noah turns one, control of Evelyn's personal inheritance transfers into a protected trust managed by an independent fiduciary."
Vanessa and Julian would lose access.
Grant read further.
David said, "Before Noah turns one, certain emergency provisions can still be triggered by his legal guardian."
Claire felt sick.
"And if Noah dies?"
David looked at her.
"His portion remains in the Mercer family trust."
Claire frowned.
"Then Vanessa doesn't get it."
"Not directly."
Grant understood first.
"If she marries me."
David nodded.
"And if something later happens to you, a spouse could inherit a substantial portion of your estate."
Claire stared at Grant.
"They need both of you."
David did not answer.
He did not need to.
Grant closed the document.
"How long until the trust becomes protected?"
"Twenty six days."
The wedding was in nineteen.
Noah's birthday in twenty seven.
Claire understood the timetable.
Vanessa wanted to marry Grant before Noah turned one.
Then Noah had to disappear before his trust protections activated.
Grant might be next.
Claire whispered, "Evelyn figured it out."
David nodded.
"Possibly."
He placed another item on the desk.
An old envelope.
Grant recognized the handwriting.
Evelyn's.
His hands shook when he opened it.
Inside was a single handwritten page.
Grant read silently.
Then he handed it to Claire.
The letter was dated two days before Evelyn's death.
Grant,
If I am wrong, burn this and forgive me.
If I am right, Vanessa and Julian are using the emergency access provisions in Noah's trust. I discovered transfers I never approved.
Julian knows I found them.
Vanessa knows too.
I am meeting my attorney tomorrow.
Do not tell either of them until I have the documents secured.
Most important, if anything happens to me, keep Noah away from Vanessa.
Claire stopped reading.
Grant turned away.
The room was completely silent.
Claire looked at the date again.
Evelyn had died the next morning.
Her attorney meeting never happened.
Grant's voice was barely audible.
"I brought Vanessa into this house."
Claire put the letter down.
"You didn't know."
"I let her hold him."
"You didn't know."
"I almost married her."
"Grant."
He turned.
His eyes were wet.
Claire had never seen him cry.
"I promised Evelyn I'd protect him."
Claire stepped closer.
"Then protect him now."
Grant looked toward the nursery monitor on his desk.
Noah was asleep.
Claire continued.
"We have twenty six days."
David shook his head.
"No."
They both looked at him.
David's expression was grim.
"You have less."
He placed his phone on the desk.
A message from one of his investigators filled the screen.
Julian Cross had purchased a plane ticket.
Departure was scheduled for the morning after Grant's wedding.
Destination, Switzerland.
Vanessa was booked on the same flight.
But there were only two tickets.
May you like
Not three.
No ticket had been purchased for Noah.
