Chapter 10 - the carrier with the hidden pocket
Everett and Lena reached the nursery first.
A small speaker had been placed inside Noah’s cradle. It played a recording of his crying from earlier that evening.
The nursery window stood open.
Snow blew across the carpet.
Everett checked the roof below, but no footprints marked the fresh white surface.
Maren entered with Noah pressed against her chest.
“Whoever did this wanted us upstairs.”
Lena turned off the speaker.
“Then something is happening downstairs.”
They returned to the dining room.
The guests had not disappeared voluntarily.
Victoria was found inside the library with the door locked from the outside. Miles had been confined in the pantry. Julian was unconscious but breathing in the east corridor.
The other relatives were discovered in separate rooms.
Celeste and Gideon were missing.
A service door near the kitchen stood open.
Tire marks crossed the snow behind the house.
Lena called the officers at the front gate.
No vehicle had left through the main entrance.
“There is an old road through the orchard,” Rosa said.
Everett looked at her.
“How many hidden passages does this house have?”
“More than your grandfather ever admitted.”
Security vehicles searched the grounds.
Maren remained in the dining room with Noah while a medic examined Julian.
When he woke, he remembered someone approaching from behind after the group entered the secret passage.
“Did you see a face?” Lena asked.
“No.”
“Did you hear anything?”
“A voice.”
“What did it say?”
Julian looked toward Everett.
“Thank you for approving the transfer.”
“I approved nothing.”
“I know.”
Julian rubbed the back of his neck.
“It was a woman’s voice.”
“Celeste?” Maren asked.
“No. Younger.”
Victoria entered from the library.
Her face was pale with anger.
“This family has officially ruined Christmas.”
Miles followed her.
“Our mother is missing.”
Everett looked at the open service door.
“Or she left.”
“You think she planned this?”
“I think she planned part of it.”
Maren placed Noah’s carrier on the table and searched the hidden pocket again.
The paper diagram had not been the only thing inside.
A seam near the base had been opened and resealed by hand.
She used a small knife from the table to cut the thread.
A folded document slid out.
It was the missing signature page from Samuel Hale’s original trust.
Everett’s breath caught.
Samuel’s signature appeared at the bottom beside the seal of a probate judge.
Above it was the identity clause.
The first verified living child descending from Adrian Hale shall be the primary beneficiary.
The wording did not name Everett.
It did not name Noah.
It protected Adrian Hale’s first living child.
Maren continued reading.
If the identity of Adrian Hale’s first child remained disputed, the trust assets would remain controlled by an independent legal custodian until proof could be established.
The named custodian was Gideon Price.
Lena read the clause twice.
“Gideon has controlled the trust since Samuel died.”
Everett shook his head.
“I was told the assets were inactive until Noah’s birth.”
“That may have been a lie.”
Julian moved closer.
“If Gideon controlled eighty-four million dollars for twenty-three years, he had access to its investment income.”
“How much?” Maren asked.
Julian calculated silently.
“Depending on the portfolio, several hundred million.”
Victoria sat down.
“Gideon was Samuel’s junior attorney. He had nothing before this family hired him.”
Miles looked at Everett.
“He could have funded everything through the trust.”
“The board influence,” Everett said. “The clinic. The identity technology.”
Lena photographed the signature page.
“Why hide this in Noah’s carrier?”
Maren looked at the stitching.
“The carrier was a gift.”
“From whom?”
“Celeste.”
Everyone turned toward the open service door.
A security officer entered carrying a green wool coat.
It had been found beside an abandoned vehicle near the orchard.
Celeste’s coat.
There was blood on the sleeve, but only a small amount.
No body was found.
Gideon’s phone lay on the driver’s seat.
Its final outgoing call had been made to the estate.
Lena played the voicemail.
At first, there was only static.
Then Gideon’s voice whispered through the speaker.
“Do not let Celeste sign the trust.”
A woman answered in the background.
“She already did.”
The message ended.
Maren looked at the forged paperwork on the dining table.
Celeste’s signature had been added beneath Everett’s.
May you like
Except Everett had still never signed it.
Someone had forged him too.
