Chapter 5: The Forged Trust
"Richard?" I whispered, my voice shaking so hard the heart monitor began to beep faster. "No... no, that’s impossible. Richard was my father's lawyer. He set up my father's accounts."
Detective Miller pulled a thick yellow folder from his briefcase. "He set up more than just standard accounts, Clara. When your father died, he didn't leave you a simple life insurance policy. He left a multi-million-dollar private family trust."
"I... I didn't know," I stammered. "Arthur told me my father died broke. He said we were living on his salary."
"Your father knew Arthur was dangerous," Miller explained, opening the folder to reveal dozens of bank statements and legal deeds. "Your father built a clause into the trust: If you died married with no surviving children, eighty percent of the estate reverted directly to your husband, with Richard Sterling retaining a ten percent management fee for life."
The puzzle pieces snapped together with horrifying clarity.
The lighter. The cigarettes. The rush to end my life before the baby was born.
"But if my baby is born alive..." I realized out loud, my hand pressing against my bump.
"If your child is born alive," Miller confirmed, "the entire trust—the cash, the real estate, the international holdings—locks into an untouchable child-trust until the kid turns twenty-one. Arthur gets nothing. Evelyn gets nothing. And Richard Sterling loses his execution fee."
They weren't just trying to murder me for an insurance policy. They were racing against my baby's lungs. They needed me dead before I went into labor, because a living infant meant they lost millions.
"There's one more thing," Detective Miller said, his face darkening as he pulled out the final document from the folder. "We pulled the county land and trust records an hour ago. Three weeks ago—right around the time Arthur started taking you into the garage—a trust amendment was filed with the state land office."
He held up a signature page.
At the bottom was my name, written in elegant cursive script.
"I never signed this," I said immediately. "I’ve been locked in that house for two months!"
"We know," Miller said. "It's an obvious forgery, executed by Richard Sterling’s firm. But look at who was named as the temporary legal guardian of your unborn child and trustee of the estate in the event of your 'accidental death or incapacitation.'"
I looked at the typed bold print on the legal document:
May you like
TEMPORARY GUARDIAN & ESTATE TRUSTEE: EVELYN VANCE.
My chest heaved as panic seized me again. They hadn't just planned to kill me. Even if the baby somehow survived my death, Evelyn had legally set herself up to take control of my child—and the millions that came with her.
