CHAPTER 7 — THE TRUST
Dominic sent me a photograph.
It showed a legal document bearing my father’s signature.
At the top were the words:
ASHCROFT SUCCESSION TRUST — REVISED
The beneficiary section did not contain my name.
It contained the name of my late younger brother, Nicholas.
Nicholas had died when he was seventeen.
I stared at the photograph.
“That document is dated two years after Nicholas died.”
My father held out his hand.
I gave him the phone.
For the first time that night, something like uncertainty crossed his face.
“Where did he get this?”
The attorney examined the image.
“The signature looks authentic.”
My chest tightened.
My father had always told me I would eventually inherit control of Ashcroft International.
Had that been another lie?
Dominic spoke through the phone.
“Ask Victor why a dead child still owns the voting trust.”
“Where are you?”
“Ask him.”
The call ended.
Every guest seemed to disappear from my awareness.
There was only my father and the document on my screen.
“Tell me the truth.”
He looked toward the attorneys.
One of them closed his leather case.
My father faced me.
“Nicholas’s name was left on the trust deliberately.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“From what?”
“From anyone who married you for your shares.”
The words struck hard because they described Dominic perfectly.
My father explained that after Nicholas’s death, the trust had not been transferred directly to me. Instead, it remained under Nicholas’s estate, with me serving as the undisclosed successor trustee.
Public searches would show that I inherited nothing.
Only a sealed court order identified me as the controlling beneficiary.
“So Dominic thought I had no authority,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Did you know he was investigating me?”
“Not at first.”
My father looked older suddenly.
“But six months ago, someone attempted to access the sealed trust file.”
“Grant?”
“We believe so.”
I thought about the forged contracts.
“They needed my signature because they couldn’t locate proof that I controlled the trust.”
My father nodded.
“The black card wasn’t only hotel access. It verifies you as the active trustee.”
Chloe stared at me.
“You control the company?”
“Fifty-one percent of the voting trust,” the attorney said.
The ballroom fell silent.
Eleanor slowly sat down.
For three years, she had treated me like a penniless outsider.
All along, I had held the power to decide whether her company lived or died.
A detective approached.
“We traced Dominic’s vehicle. He abandoned it near the river.”
My phone vibrated again.
A video message appeared.
Dominic stood in a dark office.
Behind him was a wall bearing the Ashcroft logo.
“I’m inside your father’s headquarters,” he said.
He held up a red folder.
“This contains the original trust documents.”
My father went still.
Dominic smiled into the camera.
“If Vivienne wants them back, she comes alone.”
Then the video shifted.
Someone was tied to a chair behind him.
The wedding planner.
May you like
Marissa.
End of Chapter 7…
