Chapter 9 - THE TABLET
Rachel did not move.
“Now,” Officer Kim said.
Slowly, Rachel pulled out Noah’s tablet.
“I took it by accident.”
Noah laughed once, a broken little sound. “It was under my mattress.”
Rachel glared at him before catching herself.
Officer Kim noticed.
“So did I,” Daniel said.
Rachel handed over the tablet.
Daniel entered the passcode Noah gave him.
The message app contained an account labeled DAD.
There were dozens of messages Noah had sent.
Dad can you come home early?
Aunt Rachel is mad again.
Lily is hiding in my closet.
Please answer.
Every message showed as read.
And every reply came from DAD.
Stop exaggerating.
Do what Rachel says.
I don’t have time for this.
“I did not write these.”
Dana asked Noah, “Did your dad ever say these things to you in person?”
“No.”
Rachel folded her arms. “He’s lying because it looks bad.”
Officer Kim said, “We’re not deciding that on the porch.”
Then Noah tapped the top corner of the screen.
“There’s another account.”
A hidden photo folder opened.
Inside were screenshots of Daniel’s calendar, bank statements, the children’s school schedules, photographs of his passport, and images of signed documents.
Dana leaned closer.
“These are identity documents.”
One photograph showed Daniel’s signature on a blank sheet of paper.
Another showed a practice page where the same signature had been copied again and again.
Rachel’s face went white.
Daniel looked at her.
“You practiced my signature?”
She said nothing.
Dana scrolled.
At the bottom was a photograph of an envelope addressed to Peter Sloan.
Across the envelope Rachel had written:
FINAL TRUST AMENDMENT — SIGNATURE READY.
Daniel felt his anger rise, hot and immediate.
Then he remembered Noah watching him.
He breathed once.
Twice.
When he spoke, his voice was quiet.
“What trust amendment?”
Rachel smiled without warmth.
“The one Emily wanted.”
Daniel stared at her.
“My wife never wanted you controlling our children’s money.”
Rachel’s smile disappeared.
“You don’t know what your wife wanted.”
May you like
Then she said something Daniel had never heard before.
“Emily changed her mind three days before she died.”
