Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Pressed Record
Serena Blake entered the conference room looking as though she hadn't slept.
Her hands trembled around a paper coffee cup.
She was thirty-four, professionally dressed, and visibly uncomfortable.
"Mrs. Vance," she began, "I'm sorry."
I studied her.
"For what?"
"For standing there."
She swallowed.
"I should have stopped him."
"Why didn't you?"
Her eyes filled.
"Because everyone was afraid of Julian."
I said nothing.
She placed her phone on the table.
"I recorded what happened."
Daniel immediately asked whether she would preserve the original file and provide it to investigators.
She agreed.
Then she pressed play.
I heard my own voice.
"Be careful not to forget who built the ground you're standing on."
Julian shouted.
"Shut up!"
A sharp impact.
Then another.
Chloe laughed.
"Maybe she'll finally learn."
I looked away.
Hearing it was worse than remembering.
The recording captured Julian striking me repeatedly.
It captured Chloe mocking me.
It captured the guests begging him to stop.
And then it captured something I hadn't heard clearly that night.
Chloe's voice.
"Don't damage her hands, Julian. We still need the signature."
Daniel paused the recording.
Nobody spoke.
Finally, Evelyn asked Serena, "What signature?"
Serena shook her head.
"I don't know exactly."
"Did you see the paperwork?"
"Yes."
"What did it say?"
"I only saw the first page."
She hesitated.
"It had the words 'Irrevocable Transfer' at the top."
Daniel went very still.
He asked her to describe everything else she remembered.
Serena explained that Chloe had been drinking heavily.
Earlier that evening, she had boasted that Margaret was finally going to hand over the family estate.
"Chloe said they had a lawyer who could make everything official," Serena said.
"Did she name him?" Daniel asked.
"Richard Hale."
Daniel's expression changed.
I knew that name.
Richard Hale had once represented a business partner of mine.
He had been disciplined by the state bar years earlier.
"Why would Julian hire him?" I whispered.
Evelyn answered.
"Because someone willing to prepare questionable documents can be very useful to a desperate man."
Serena wiped her eyes.
"There's more."
She opened a photograph.
It showed Chloe standing beside the dining room table.
In front of her was a stack of papers.
The top page carried my name.
Beneath it was a document labeled:
Durable Power of Attorney.
My throat tightened.
I had never agreed to grant Julian control over my finances.
And yet the photograph suggested that he was preparing to obtain exactly that.
"Serena," I asked, "why did you come here?"
She looked directly at me.
"Because after you left, Julian said something."
"What?"
"He told Chloe that if you wouldn't sign willingly, they'd have to prove you weren't competent to manage your own affairs."
A long silence settled over the room.
May you like
Then Serena whispered the words that made my blood run cold.
"They were planning to put you in a conservatorship."
