Chapter 4
Jason was out the door before anyone could stop him.
Detective Alvarez caught up at the driveway.
“You are not going over there alone.”
“That's my father.”
“And if your mother is destroying evidence, charging in may make things worse.”
Jason looked ready to fight him.
I stepped between them.
“Jason.”
He turned.
“You spent six years making decisions out of fear.”
His face tightened.
“Don't make another one.”
That reached him.
Barely.
We drove to Frank's house behind two patrol cars.
When we arrived, the front door was open.
Frank sat on the living room floor beside a broken lamp.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
Jason ran to him.
“Dad.”
“I'm fine.”
“You're bleeding.”
“Your mother threw a vase.”
Emily searched the room.
“Where is she?”
“Gone.”
“Did she take the files?”
Frank nodded.
“And the laptop.”
Alvarez crouched beside him.
“Did she threaten you?”
Frank laughed bitterly.
“She threatened all of us.”
“What did she say?”
Frank looked toward Lily's empty place at the family photographs.
“She said the company belonged to her as much as it belonged to me, and she wasn't going to let Sarah's child take it.”
Sarah's child.
Not Lily.
Not granddaughter.
Even while running, Diane refused to call her by name.
The police began searching for her car.
Frank refused an ambulance until Emily threatened to call one anyway.
While a paramedic cleaned his cut, I walked into Diane's office.
It had been stripped.
Desk drawers open.
Cabinets emptied.
One thing remained.
A framed family photograph.
Diane stood in the center.
Jason beside her.
Emily and Cole on one side.
Frank on the other.
Lily had originally been in front of Jason.
Someone had cut her out.
My stomach turned.
Jason came in behind me.
He saw it.
His jaw tightened.
“I didn't know.”
“I believe you.”
He looked at me, almost hopeful.
I added, “That doesn't mean I forgive you.”
The hope disappeared.
“I know.”
I picked up the frame.
“How long has she hated my daughter?”
“She didn't at first.”
I turned.
“What does that mean?”
Jason leaned against the desk.
“When Lily was born, Mom was obsessed with her.”
That was true.
Diane bought a crib for this house before we bought one for ours.
She threw the baby shower.
She took hundreds of pictures.
“So what changed?”
“The trust.”
Jason looked toward the empty safe.
“Grandpa died when Lily was eight months old.”
I remembered the funeral.
Two months later came the secret DNA test.
I felt sick.
“That's when Diane learned about the trust.”
Jason nodded.
It all lined up.
Lily wasn't rejected because Diane doubted she belonged.
Diane created the doubt because Lily stood between her and control of the company.
Frank appeared at the doorway.
“I should have known.”
His voice sounded older than it had the day before.
“You trusted your wife,” I said.
“So did all of us.”
Emily stepped behind him.
“No.”
We turned.
She held a small external hard drive.
“I didn't.”
Frank frowned.
“Where did you get that?”
“Mom's desk.”
“But she emptied it.”
“I hid it three weeks ago.”
Emily had copied Diane's office computer when she first discovered suspicious payments.
Not everything.
But enough.
We spent the next two hours with Detective Alvarez and a financial crimes investigator.
The transfers formed a pattern.
Money left the family company.
It moved through consulting firms.
Then into investment accounts controlled by people connected to Diane.
Some came back.
Some vanished.
One of the shell companies was owned by Raymond Pike.
The lab employee.
Another was controlled by a man named Calvin Reed.
I recognized that name.
“The hotel.”
Everyone looked at me.
“What?” Alvarez asked.
“The man outside my hotel said he wanted the envelope.”
“You saw him?”
“No. Just heard his voice.”
Emily pulled up a corporate record.
There was an address.
A photo associated with an old contractor license.
Jason looked at it.
“I know him.”
“Who is he?”
“My mother's cousin.”
Of course.
Alvarez asked more questions.
Then Frank's attorney arrived.
Margaret Sloan was in her sixties and spoke with the calm confidence of someone who billed more per hour than most people made in a day.
She read the trust.
Then read it again.
Finally she removed her glasses.
“Diane has a problem.”
Frank gave a humorless laugh.
“She has several.”
Margaret pointed at the document.
“She cannot change this trust.”
“Can I?”
“No.”
“Can Lily refuse it?”
I stared at him.
“Why would she?”
Frank rubbed his forehead.
“Because none of this should be on a child.”
Margaret shook her head.
“The trust doesn't transfer control to Lily now. It holds shares for her until specific conditions are met. There are safeguards.”
“When?”
“Age twenty-five for full voting authority unless trustees determine earlier involvement is appropriate.”
Emily relaxed slightly.
Then Margaret looked at me.
“You are currently Lily's natural guardian.”
“Currently?”
The word bothered me.
She hesitated.
“There's a clause regarding guardianship if both parents are considered unfit or unavailable.”
Jason frowned.
“What clause?”
Margaret turned the page.
“Temporary voting authority can be exercised by a court-appointed guardian of the beneficiary.”
The room went silent.
I understood before anyone said it.
Diane didn't just need Lily declared illegitimate.
That had failed.
There was another path.
Make Jason and me look unfit.
Then control whoever controlled Lily.
A cold feeling spread through me.
“She isn't going to stop.”
Margaret's eyes met mine.
“No.”
My phone buzzed.
Rachel.
I answered immediately.
“Is Lily okay?”
A pause.
Then my sister said, “She's fine.”
My knees weakened with relief.
“But something happened.”
“What?”
“A woman came to the house.”
Every person in the room went still.
“What woman?”
“She said she was from child protective services.”
I stopped breathing.
“What did she want?”
“She said there had been an emergency report about Lily's safety.”
Jason cursed.
Rachel continued.
“She asked to come inside.”
“Did you let her?”
“No. I asked for identification.”
Thank God.
“She showed me a badge.”
“Then what?”
“I called the number on the county website.”
My sister had always been smarter than me under pressure.
“What did they say?”
“No caseworker had been sent.”
Emily whispered, “Oh God.”
Rachel said, “The woman left when she heard me making the call.”
“Did you see her car?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“A black SUV.”
The room tilted.
The same vehicle from the hotel.
I gripped the phone.
“Rachel, listen to me. Lock everything. Call the police. Don't let Lily out of your sight.”
“She is right here.”
Then I heard Lily in the background.
“Mom?”
I covered my mouth.
“I'm here, baby.”
“Can I come home?”
My eyes filled.
“Soon.”
“I don't like everybody acting scared.”
I turned away from the others.
“You don't need to be scared.”
It was a lie.
And I hated myself for saying it.
After we hung up, Alvarez immediately contacted Tucson police.
Then Margaret's phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression hardened.
“What?”
She ended the call.
“Diane has filed an emergency petition in family court.”
Jason stared at her.
“For what?”
“Temporary guardianship of Lily.”
I laughed because it was too insane not to.
“She assaulted her yesterday.”
Margaret nodded.
“She claims you attacked her during a family gathering, that Lily was injured during the fight, and that Jason has a history of gambling and stealing from his father's company.”
Jason's face drained.
Frank stood.
“That woman is out of her mind.”
Margaret wasn't finished.
“She also claims Sarah has threatened to disappear with Lily.”
“I took my injured child to my sister.”
“I know.”
“She sent someone pretending to be CPS!”
“We'll raise that.”
Jason stared at the court filing.
“When is the hearing?”
Margaret looked at us.
“Tomorrow morning.”
The room went silent.
Then she added the worst part.
“Until then, Diane is asking the judge to order Lily returned to Maricopa County and placed with a neutral guardian.”
I felt the air leave my lungs.
“No.”
Margaret looked at me.
“We're going to fight it.”
“No one is taking my daughter.”
“Sarah.”
“No one.”
Jason came closer.
For once, he didn't try to touch me.
He simply stood beside me.
“They won't.”
I looked at him.
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
His face hardened.
“But I know my mother.”
Something had changed in him.
May you like
Maybe fear had finally become anger.
“And I know where she keeps the things she thinks nobody else can find.”
