Chapter 12: The Threat Against My Youngest Daughter
For a moment, the entire world seemed to stop.
"What did you just say?""
Vanessa was crying so hard that I could barely understand her.
"Gregory said he knows where Ava goes to school. He knows where she parks. He knows her schedule.""
I stood up so quickly that my chair scraped across Patricia's office floor.
"Where is Ava right now?""
She was sitting beside Emily.
Both girls looked at me.
"Dad?""
I put the phone on speaker.
"Vanessa, listen carefully. Where is Gregory?""
"I don't know.""
"What exactly did he threaten?""
"He said if I helped you recover the documents, Ava would regret it.""
Ava's face went white.
Emily immediately moved closer to her.
Patricia held out her hand.
"Daniel, let me speak to her.""
I passed the phone over.
Patricia introduced herself and began asking Vanessa precise questions.
When had Gregory made the threat?
Where had they spoken?
Had he mentioned a specific location?
Had he sent messages?
Vanessa struggled to answer.
"Yesterday," she finally said.
"He came to the house after Daniel left.""
I froze.
"Gregory came to our house?""
"Yes.""
"When?""
"Yesterday afternoon.""
I looked toward Patricia.
She immediately began writing.
"Did he enter the house?""
Vanessa nodded, although she was speaking through the phone.
"He had a key.""
I stared at her.
"What key?""
"The spare key I gave him.""
I felt sick.
Gregory had access to our home.
He had access to my mother's documents.
He had access to the family trust information.
And now he had threatened my daughter.
"Vanessa, where is that key?""
"I don't know. He gave it back.""
"Where did you put it?""
"In the kitchen drawer.""
I looked at Emily.
"Did you know he had a key?""
She shook her head.
Patricia ended the call after obtaining Vanessa's agreement to provide a written statement.
Then she gave me a firm instruction.
"Daniel, do not return home until the immediate safety concern has been addressed. Contact law enforcement and report the threat.""
I nodded.
She also recommended that we preserve the threatening messages and avoid direct contact with Gregory.
I called the police and explained the situation.
An officer took the information and advised us on the appropriate next steps.
I then contacted Ava's school and arranged for her to be accompanied whenever she needed to leave campus.
Ava sat silently through the calls.
Finally, she looked at me.
"Is he really going to hurt me?""
I knelt in front of her.
"I don't know what he's capable of, sweetheart. But I do know we're taking this seriously.""
She began crying.
"I just wanted a car for my birthday.""
I hugged her.
"I know.""
"I didn't want any of this.""
"Neither did I.""
Emily joined us.
For several seconds, the three of us held each other in Patricia's office.
Then Emily whispered something.
"Grandma knew this could happen.""
I looked at her.
"What do you mean?""
She opened the letter again.
Near the bottom, there was a paragraph we hadn't examined carefully.
If Gregory ever threatens one of my grandchildren, do not assume he is acting alone. He has people who help him move documents and money. Preserve everything and contact Harold immediately.
I read the paragraph twice.
"She anticipated a threat?""
Emily nodded.
"Maybe she had experienced something similar.""
Patricia examined the letter.
"That's important. We need to include it in the evidence file.""
She called Harold.
He answered immediately.
When Patricia explained the threat and the reference to the second folder, Harold became unusually quiet.
Then he said:
"I know what your mother meant.""
I leaned toward the phone.
"What second folder?""
"Your mother maintained two sets of records. The first contained financial statements and transaction summaries. The second contained original correspondence, recordings, and signed statements from people who believed Gregory had defrauded them.""
"Where is it?""
Harold paused.
"Your mother told me it was stored separately from the safe-deposit box.""
"Where?""
"She never gave me the exact location. She said only that it was somewhere Gregory would never think to look.""
I rubbed my forehead.
"How are we supposed to find it?""
"She left a clue in the original estate file.""
Patricia asked him to explain.
Harold said he would bring the relevant page to the office the following morning.
Then he added something else.
"Daniel, I also need to tell you that Gregory contacted me several months ago.""
I felt my stomach tighten.
"Why?""
"He wanted a copy of your mother's estate inventory. I refused.""
"Did he threaten you?""
"Not directly. But he told me that your mother had left unfinished business and that he intended to settle it.""
I looked at Emily.
"Did you tell him about the second folder?""
"No. I never confirmed that it existed.""
After the call, Patricia arranged for us to stay somewhere secure while the threat was assessed.
We spent the night at a hotel near her office.
I barely slept.
Around 2:00 a.m., Emily knocked on my door.
"Dad?""
I opened it.
She was holding her laptop.
"I found something.""
I stepped aside.
She sat on the edge of the chair and opened an old email archive.
"Grandma sent me this when I was sixteen. I never understood why.""
The email contained a photograph of an old wooden desk.
My mother's desk.
She had written beneath the photograph:
Sometimes the safest place for something important is the place everyone has already searched.
Emily enlarged the image.
There was a small brass key visible beside a framed photograph.
I recognized the key immediately.
It had belonged to my mother's old writing desk.
After she died, I had moved the desk into the study.
But I had never found the key.
"Where is that desk now?"" Emily asked.
"At home.""
She looked at me.
"Then maybe the second folder is still there.""
I stared at the photograph.
My mother had hidden something in the one place Gregory might never have thought to search.
The desk she had used for thirty years.
I immediately called Patricia.
She agreed that we should not enter the house without proper precautions, especially given the threat and Gregory's access.
She arranged for the appropriate assistance to secure the property before we returned.
At 9:15 the following morning, Harold arrived at Patricia's office carrying an old estate folder.
He opened it to a page marked with my mother's handwriting.
There was a short note.
The second folder is beneath the false bottom of the desk drawer. The key is held by the person who remembers my favorite song.
I stared at the sentence.
My mother had loved music.
She used to sing while cooking, especially an old jazz standard that she played every Sunday morning.
Emily smiled faintly.
"Grandma used to sing that song with me.""
Ava looked up.
"She taught me the lyrics too.""
I looked at both girls.
Then I remembered something.
When my mother was sick, she had given Ava a small brass key on a ribbon.
She told her it was a special keepsake.
Ava's eyes widened.
"Wait.""
She opened her purse.
Inside was a small jewelry pouch.
She reached in and pulled out the brass key.
"I still have it.""
Harold looked at the key.
Then he looked at me.
"Your mother trusted the right person.""
I felt tears sting my eyes.
The key had been with Ava for years.
Gregory had searched through my mother's financial records, taken the lockbox, and attempted to access the safe-deposit box.
But he had never thought to ask an eighteen-year-old girl about a little brass key.
We now had a possible way to recover the evidence my mother had hidden.
Then Harold examined the photograph Emily had found.
His expression changed.
"Daniel, there's something else.""
He pointed to the framed photograph beside the key.
It showed my mother standing with three people outside a commercial building.
One was Gregory.
Another was a woman I didn't recognize.
The third was Michael.
But the photograph had been taken twelve years earlier.
Long before Vanessa claimed Gregory had reentered her life.
I stared at my brother's face.
"Why was Michael standing with Gregory and my mother?""
Harold turned the photograph over.
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On the back, my mother's handwriting contained one final sentence:
*Michael knows what happened to the first family Gregory destroyed.*
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