Chapter 19 - The Last Account
Grant had been a co-trustee for nine years.
By the time Ethan and Maya reached the foundation office, an emergency transfer request was already pending.
Grant had scheduled it weeks earlier.
It would execute automatically at midnight unless both trustees objected.
One trustee was Grant.
The other signature on the request was Claire's.
Three years after her death.
"He forged a dead woman's name," Maya said.
Ethan felt almost numb to the cruelty by then.
They froze the account with twenty-seven minutes to spare.
Investigators traced the destination to the same offshore network Claire had identified years earlier.
Grant's final escape route disappeared.
Dr. Vale accepted a plea agreement and admitted falsifying Ethan's medical records in exchange for payments.
Camila testified about the forged documents.
Rosa authenticated her recording.
Travis admitted tampering with Claire's car and kidnapping Lily, hoping cooperation would reduce his sentence.
Nora pleaded guilty to multiple charges rather than face Lily's testimony at trial.
Grant refused every deal.
He insisted Ethan had framed him.
On the first day of Grant's trial, Ethan sat behind prosecutors with Maya beside him.
Grant turned at the defense table and smiled.
It was the same smile he'd worn their entire childhood whenever he believed he had found a way to win.
Then prosecutors played Claire's video.
The smile disappeared.
They played the river-plant confession next.
Then the jury heard Lily's recorded forensic interview describing the green bottle, the kitchen conversation, and the watch on the kidnapper's wrist.
Ethan did not let Lily sit through the trial.
She was at school drawing planets.
When the guilty verdicts were read, Grant finally looked at Ethan.
No smile. No apology. Just emptiness.
Outside the courthouse, reporters shouted questions.
Ethan ignored them all.
His phone rang.
Lily.
"Daddy, did the bad part finish?"
Ethan looked back at the courthouse doors.
"The court part did."
"Are you coming home?"
"Right now."
She hesitated.
"Can we throw away the tea set?"
For the first time in months, Ethan laughed without forcing it.
"Every single cup."
But when he arrived home, Lily had placed one broken white porcelain shard on his desk.
"Why keep that?" he asked.
May you like
She looked up at him.
"So you remember I told you the truth."
