Chapter 4 - WHAT EMILY REMEMBERED
I carried Emily out of the chapel.
She kept both arms around my neck.
I could feel her heart beating against me.
Once we reached my car, I crouched beside her.
“You went to Hawthorne?”
She nodded.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was I at work?”
Another nod.
“What did Rebecca tell you?”
Emily looked toward the chapel.
“She said we were going somewhere fun.”
I forced myself to keep my voice calm.
“What happened?”
“There was a big fence.”
My stomach tightened.
“And a lady asked me questions.”
“What questions?”
“If I missed Mommy.”
I swallowed.
“What else?”
“If you got angry.”
“At you?”
Emily shook her head.
“If you got angry when I talked about Mommy.”
I closed my eyes for one second.
“What did you tell her?”
“That you get sad.”
“That’s true.”
“I told her you keep Mommy’s picture beside your bed.”
I smiled weakly.
“I do.”
Emily looked worried.
“Was that bad?”
“No.”
“Then the lady asked if I wanted a new family.”
My hands went cold.
“What did Rebecca do?”
“She told me to answer.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I already had one.”
That nearly broke me.
I hugged her.
She whispered against my shoulder.
“Rebecca got mad in the car.”
“How?”
“She said I ruined the interview.”
I pulled back.
“What interview?”
“She called it that.”
Nathan had followed us outside.
He stood several feet away, listening.
His face had gone dark.
“Daniel,” he said quietly.
“I know.”
We returned home with my mother.
The wedding reception had been canceled.
I didn’t call anyone.
I didn’t explain anything on social media.
My only concern was Emily.
At home, she changed out of her dress.
Then she refused to leave my side.
Even when I went to my office, she sat on the sofa near the door.
I opened the security cabinet.
At first nothing looked disturbed.
Passports were there.
Property documents were there.
Laura’s death certificate was there.
Then I saw the empty space.
The original trust binder was gone.
So were Emily’s medical records.
And copies of Laura’s estate documents.
I called Thomas.
“Someone cleaned out part of the cabinet.”
“What’s missing?”
I told him.
He was silent.
“Change every password you have.”
“I already am.”
“Bank accounts too.”
“Why?”
“Because this is larger than a school enrollment.”
He arrived forty minutes later.
Nathan joined us.
We spread photocopies across the dining table.
The same table where Rebecca had helped Emily decorate Christmas cookies three months earlier.
I remembered how happy I had been that night.
How grateful.
I had believed I was giving my daughter a second chance at a family.
Instead, I had invited someone into our home who viewed her as an obstacle.
Thomas studied the trust.
“Your father made Emily beneficiary of approximately thirty percent of the voting shares held in the family trust.”
“I know.”
“While she is a minor, you exercise those rights.”
“Yes.”
“If you become legally unable to act?”
“The successor trustee does.”
Thomas looked at me.
“Who?”
I had not looked at that section in years.
Thomas turned the page.
Then he stopped.
“Nathan.”
My brother frowned.
“What?”
“You used to be successor trustee.”
“Used to?”
Thomas turned the binder toward us.
A corporate amendment had been filed six weeks earlier.
Nathan’s name had been removed.
The new successor trustee was Jonathan Pierce.
I stared at the page.
“I never approved this.”
Thomas pointed at my signature.
Someone had forged it again.
Nathan leaned back.
“What happens if Jonathan controls Daniel’s voting rights?”
Thomas’s expression hardened.
“He and whoever he is working with could control Carter Development.”
The room fell silent.
This was not only about Rebecca wanting Emily gone.
This was about my company.
My father’s company.
The company Emily would one day inherit.
My phone rang.
Jonathan.
Thomas nodded.
“Answer it.”
I put it on speaker.
“Daniel,” Jonathan said.
“Where are you?”
“That isn’t important.”
“It is to me.”
“You need to listen carefully.”
I looked at Thomas.
Jonathan continued.
“Rebecca and Charles Wynn planned to move Emily before you understood what was happening.”
“Why?”
“Because after the marriage, they were going to force a board vote.”
“For what?”
Jonathan hesitated.
“To declare you temporarily unfit to exercise the trust’s voting authority.”
Nathan stood.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Jonathan heard him.
“So Nathan is there.”
“Answer me,” I said.
Jonathan exhaled.
“They built the entire plan around one thing, Daniel.”
“What?”
“Making you look unstable enough to lose control.”
I stared toward Emily.
She was sitting in the next room coloring.
May you like
Jonathan’s next words were barely above a whisper.
“And the wedding today was supposed to provide the final piece of evidence.”
