Chapter 6 - REBECCA
Rebecca Sloan arrived after two in the morning looking like someone who had expected bad news for years.
She did not hug Grant.
She did not even look at him.
She asked only one question.
"Where's Lily?"
Rachel brought her to the guest room. Lily stared for a moment, then ran.
"Aunt Becca!"
Rebecca dropped to her knees and caught her.
Grant went pale.
Later, Rebecca sat with police and opened a file she had carried inside her coat.
"Amelia made me backup trustee," she said. "But only if Grant was removed or disqualified."
Nathan Cole cut in. "This is not the time for estate litigation."
"You mean it's a terrible time for your client to learn his wife has been trying to declare his daughter developmentally incompetent?"
Grant turned to Vivian.
"What?"
Vivian's eyes flashed. "Don't be dramatic."
Rebecca slid papers across the table.
They were draft petitions from a private law office. Not filed, but prepared.
Petition for temporary guardianship.
Petition for management of protected assets.
Attached was a draft evaluation falsely describing Lily as severely delayed and in need of long-term supervision.
Dante looked toward the child playing silently with a wooden puzzle in the next room.
"Who wrote this?"
Rebecca tapped the signature line.
Dr. Stephen Vale.
Grant looked stunned. "I've never met him."
Grant grabbed the papers. "You did this?"
"I was protecting the family."
"By calling my daughter incompetent?"
"By preventing Rebecca from getting control of forty million dollars."
Grant stared at Vivian.
"Forty million?"
"You didn't know?"
"Then your father-in-law was smarter than Amelia thought."
Nathan stepped between them. "Nobody says another word."
Rebecca pointed to the third figure.
"Who's that, sweetheart?"
Lily answered immediately.
May you like
"Doctor Steve."
Grant stared at Vivian. She had just insisted Lily had never met him.
