Chapter 7 - Page Nine
The document in my mother's drawer had pages one through eight, then ten through nineteen.
Page nine had been removed cleanly.
Helen Cho arrived at my office after one in the morning and read the agreement twice.
"The numbering is real," she said. "Something was taken."
"Could my mother have planned to hand Grace control of my trust?"
"Not legally. You're forty-two, competent, and the trust is yours. But she could nominate a successor trustee for the separate Cross Family Foundation."
"Would that matter?"
"It controls the charitable voting block. Seven percent of the company. Enough to swing certain board matters."
Vanessa had twisted a partial truth into a weapon.
"Your mother is awake and asking for you."
Eleanor looked smaller under the white blankets, but her eyes were clear.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"For what?"
"For waiting so long."
"Mom, what was on page nine?"
"How do you know it's missing?"
"Vanessa told me."
"Then she saw the draft before today."
"What was on it?"
"A contingency. If the Bennett transfer was proven fraudulent, Grace would temporarily vote the disputed shares until a court ruled. Not your trust. The stolen shares."
"Why Grace?"
"Because they're hers."
I shook my head. "They belonged to Caleb."
"No."
"Caleb transferred them to Grace before he died. That transfer was witnessed, notarized, and never filed because the original disappeared."
"Where is the copy?"
"I hid it."
"Where?"
"In your father's old lake house. Behind the fireplace stone with the crack shaped like a lightning bolt."
Eleanor grabbed my wrist.
"Do not go alone."
"Why?"
"Because Vanessa asked me the exact same question this morning."
"You told her about the lake house?"
"No."
"Then how would she know?"
My mother gave me the answer with her eyes.
May you like
Someone else had told her.
Someone who had known our family long before Vanessa entered it.
