Chapter 9 - The Attachment
Arthur found the intake email.
There it was.
Attachment three.
SPECIAL FAMILY NOTE — GRACE BENNETT.
He had signed the contract from his phone between meetings.
He wanted to smash something.
Instead, he sat down.
Rachel said:
“This is exactly how Victoria and Charles operated.”
“What?”
“They relied on you not reading.”
Arthur looked at her.
“That’s not a defense.”
“No.”
She did not soften it.
“They manipulated you. You were still responsible for what you ignored.”
That distinction mattered.
Meanwhile, Lily began meeting with a child therapist, Dr. Maya Chen.
The first session lasted twenty minutes.
Victoria stood outside the house.
Dr. Chen asked why.
“She watches.”
“From where?”
“Everywhere.”
The cameras had taught Lily that privacy did not exist.
Arthur’s stomach turned when he heard.
He ordered every hidden device removed.
Police still needed them.
His instinct to fix things quickly could destroy evidence.
The investigation uncovered more trust withdrawals.
Total unauthorized payments:
$438,000.
Some to Victoria’s consulting company.
Some routed through vendors.
Rachel filed emergency motions to freeze disputed accounts.
Arthur asked:
“Can Lily lose the trust?”
“No.”
“Can they touch it now?”
“Not if we do this correctly.”
Then the court clerk called.
A guardianship petition had been filed that morning.
Not Victoria’s draft.
Petitioner:
“Charles isn’t family.”
“He claims emergency fiduciary standing through the old probate appointment.”
“That’s insane.”
“Probably.”
Rachel kept reading.
Then her face changed.
“What?”
“There’s an attached affidavit.”
“Elena?”
Rachel turned the screen.
The affidavit claimed Arthur was unstable and Lily should be removed from his care.
Arthur called Elena immediately.
“I never signed that.”
The signature looked perfect.
Elena whispered:
“That’s from my employment contract.”
Someone had copied it.
Then Dr. Chen called.
May you like
Lily had just remembered something Victoria told her weeks earlier.
“If Daddy loses you, it will be because Elena told them he was bad.”
