Chapter 4 - THE TRUST
The attorney’s name was Warren Price.
For twenty-two years, he had handled the Blackwood family’s contracts, trusts, and private settlements. He had attended Victor’s wedding to Ethan’s mother. He had stood beside Victor at her funeral.
And now his voice was on a recording discussing how badly a baby should be hurt.
Detective Quinn ordered officers to secure every office in the house.
Serena folded her arms. “A voice can be faked.”
“Maybe,” Quinn said. “But phone records are harder.”
At the hospital, doctors confirmed Ethan had a fractured upper arm. The break was painful but treatable. What concerned them more were older bruises in different stages of healing.
Lily sat in the next room with two bruised ribs and a swollen wrist. She refused medication until a nurse promised Ethan was safe.
Victor stood at the foot of her bed.
“You protected him while my own staff ignored it.”
“Some of them were scared,” Lily said.
“And you weren’t?”
“I was terrified.” She looked him in the eye. “I just cared about him more than I cared about what Serena could do to me.”
Victor had no answer for that.
Detective Quinn arrived with a copy of Ethan’s trust documents. Under normal terms, Victor remained trustee until Ethan turned twenty-five. But an amendment had been drafted three weeks earlier.
If Victor was declared unfit, imprisoned, or medically incapacitated, control would pass to his legal spouse.
Serena was supposed to become that spouse on Saturday.
“She needed the marriage,” Quinn said. “Then she needed you removed.”
Victor read the final page twice.
“My signature is already here.”
“It’s forged,” Lily said from the bed.
Victor looked at her.
She pointed to the bottom. “You sign your V with a sharp first stroke. That one is rounded. I’ve seen you sign school forms.”
Quinn smiled without humor. “Good eye.”
A nurse entered carrying a sealed evidence bag. Inside was a bottle found in Ethan’s diaper bag.
The label said infant fever medicine.
May you like
The liquid inside was a powerful sedative.
And Serena’s fingerprints covered the cap.
