Chapter 9 - The First Lie
I didn't confront Celeste immediately. I had learned, too late, that anger could make a person careless. Instead, I called Ben Carter, the attorney who had handled Emily's estate and still advised me on the family trust. I sent him the text, Nora's incident report, and the camera outage time.
Ben asked one question. "Has Celeste ever had access to Emily's trust documents?"
"No."
"Are you certain?"
I thought of the study key on my ring, the papers I kept in a locked drawer, and the afternoons Celeste had spent helping me sort mail after Emily died. "I thought so."
Ben told me Emily had left a small trust for Lily, protected until she turned twenty-five. It included a portfolio and a cottage on the coast. Celeste could not inherit it, but she could gain influence if she became Lily's legal guardian or if I signed certain powers of attorney after marriage.
"I haven't signed anything like that."
"Good. Don't sign anything until we review the file. Someone requested copies of the trust last month using your email address. The request was withdrawn before we could verify it."
I opened my email. There was a sent message I didn't remember writing, asking Ben to prepare an amendment that would allow my future spouse to manage Lily's trust in an emergency.
The message had been sent while I was on a business trip.
May you like
I had not written it.
Ben reminded me that a trust was not just money. It was a set of promises made by someone who could no longer speak for herself. Emily had built those protections because she wanted Lily to have choices when she grew up, not because she expected our family to become a courtroom.
