Chapter 6 - The Woman at the Door
Vale called for protection.
Cullen turned off every light except one in the kitchen.
Mara pulled the curtains.
Mireya sat between them, inhaler in her lap.
"Is Tove coming?"
"No," Cullen said. "She is not getting near you."
The intercom buzzed.
Mara jumped.
The doorman's voice came through.
"Ms. Hart? There's a woman downstairs asking for Mr. Hart. She says she's his attorney."
Cullen exchanged a look with Vale.
"Name?"
"Nora Bell."
Vale said, "Let her up."
Nora entered carrying a leather portfolio and looked as if she hadn't slept.
"I came because Tove called me an hour ago," she said. "She wanted an emergency guardianship petition prepared."
"Guardianship over Mireya?"
"She claimed you're having a breakdown and exposing your daughter to danger. She said tonight's asthma incident proved you're medically negligent."
Cullen laughed once, without humor.
"She threw the inhaler."
"I know. One of the guests sent me a video."
Nora handed him her phone.
The clip showed everything.
Tove snatching the inhaler.
Mireya begging.
Tove throwing it.
Cullen rushing in.
And, in the background, Bryce Keene quietly slipping out through the study door.
Vale paused the video.
"What was he doing there?"
Cullen's blood ran cold.
Bryce had told him that morning he was in Chicago.
Nora opened her portfolio.
"There's something else. Marisol changed her trust six days before she died."
"What trust?"
"The voting shares in Hart Maritime."
Cullen stared.
His wife's family company was worth hundreds of millions.
Nora continued.
"If Marisol died, her shares transferred into a protected trust for Mireya. You were named trustee. But if you became incapacitated, imprisoned, or legally unfit..."
She looked toward the sleeping child.
"Tove was named successor trustee."
Cullen felt the room tilt.
"Marisol would never name Tove."
"Exactly," Nora said. "I don't think she did."
She slid a copy of the document across the table.
Cullen looked at the signature.
It resembled Marisol's.
May you like
But in the lower corner was the witness name.
Bryce Keene.
