Chapter 7 - The School File
By noon, Detective Cole had a warrant for Amanda's laptop.
Amanda's lawyer fought it.
Amanda cried in the driveway while officers carried out two computers and a locked document case.
Ethan watched from Mara's car across the street.
He hated that part of him still wanted Amanda to look at him and say she was sorry.
She never did.
Instead, she stared straight at the car and mouthed, You did this.
Lily saw it too.
"No," she said quietly. "She did."
At Ethan's school, the real counselor, Ms. Perez, nearly dropped the forged statement when Detective Cole showed it to her.
"I never wrote this. Ethan has never been violent."
"Did Amanda ever ask you for an evaluation?"
Ms. Perez hesitated.
"She asked whether grief could make a child unreliable. I thought she was worried about him."
Then she remembered something else.
Two weeks after Daniel's funeral, Amanda requested copies of Ethan's emergency contacts and medical records.
"She said she was updating insurance."
Mara asked, "Did she ask about his mother?"
"Yes. Claire Reed. She wanted the original death certificate."
Ethan frowned. "Why?"
Nobody answered until Mara got back to her office.
She pulled Ethan's trust document from an old file.
"Your mother's family created this trust. It passes fully to you at twenty-five. Until then, your father controlled it. If your father died, the successor trustee was supposed to be..."
She stopped.
Ethan leaned closer.
The name had been crossed out in a photocopy Amanda submitted to court.
The original name was still visible underneath.
MARA BENNETT.
Amanda's copy replaced it with AMANDA REED.
Lily whispered, "Mom changed it."
Mara nodded.
Then Detective Cole called.
The locked document case from Amanda's house was empty.
May you like
Except for one thing.
A receipt for a storage unit rented the day after Daniel died.
