Chapter 10 - THE FOURTH CHILD
Her name was Grace.
She would have been twenty-seven.
Madison sat frozen when we told her.
Jake looked like he didn’t understand the words.
“A sister?” he said.
“Half sister,” Samuel corrected gently.
Dad had an affair years earlier.
Grace’s mother died when Grace was four.
Grandpa discovered the child existed and secretly created a trust for her.
“Where is she?” I asked.
Samuel looked down.
“She died at nineteen.”
The room became silent.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
My anger briefly disappeared beneath sadness for someone I had never met.
Then Daniel asked the question I hadn’t thought of.
“What happened to her trust?”
Samuel looked at him.
“It should have gone to her estate.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“But it didn’t.”
Samuel shook his head.
Dad had filed documents claiming Grace left no heirs.
Her remaining trust funds were transferred into Carter Coastal Imports.
Nearly $180,000.
My stomach turned.
“So Dad stole from his dead daughter too?”
Samuel didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
Then Rachel called.
She had found something even worse.
Grace had a child.
A boy.
Born seven months before her death.
His name was Noah.
Dad knew.
“He claimed there were no heirs anyway?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Where’s Noah?”
“We’re trying to find him.”
Madison suddenly stood.
“I’m going to be sick.”
She ran to the bathroom.
Jake stared at the wall.
“He knew about a grandson.”
“And took his inheritance,” I said.
That changed the case.
This wasn’t just about us anymore.
Daniel contacted an investigator.
By the next afternoon, they found Noah.
He was eight.
Living with Grace’s aunt outside Sacramento.
His guardian had no idea a trust ever existed.
I looked at his school photo.
Dark hair.
Huge brown eyes.
Something about his face looked painfully familiar.
Jake whispered, “He looks like Grandpa.”
Daniel nodded.
Then his assistant rushed into the room.
“You need to see this.”
She handed him her phone.
A breaking local news article showed Dad standing outside his company.
CAMPAIGN OF HARASSMENT THREATENS LOCAL FAMILY BUSINESS.
Dad had gone public.
He claimed an unnamed adult child was trying to extort him.
He painted himself as a victim.
Mom stood beside him.
Crying.
Madison’s yacht appeared in the background.
Then I saw the final paragraph.
Dad had scheduled a press conference for the next morning.
Jake looked furious.
“He’s trying to bury you.”
“No.”
I stared at the photo.
“He’s trying to make me angry enough to make a mistake.”
Daniel nodded.
“So what do you do?”
I looked at Grandpa’s letter on the table.
“We don’t answer him.”
I pointed toward Noah’s file.
“We answer with evidence.”
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
It was the district attorney’s office.
May you like
They had reviewed the forged trust documents.
And they wanted my father in for questioning.
