Chapter 4 - The Second Will
Samuel Pike arrived before midnight.
He was sixty-two, narrow-faced, and usually impossible to surprise.
The moment Elena placed the pharmacy receipt in front of him, he looked surprised.
“That is not my signature.”
Daniel leaned over the desk. “I watched Hart compare it to your account card.”
“Then Hart was paid to lie.”
“By my mother?”
Pike looked toward Victoria, who sat by the fire as if this were a boring family argument instead of an attempted murder investigation.
“I did not say that.”
Elena held up a hand.
“Enough. Rosa said I signed a second will. I don’t remember signing anything three weeks ago.”
Pike went still.
Victoria’s eyes lifted.
Daniel noticed both reactions.
“So it exists,” he said.
Pike slowly removed his glasses.
“Elena, your father instructed me to prepare a second testament for you before his death.”
“My father died four years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Why would he prepare my will?”
“Because he believed one day you would marry into a family that might benefit from your death.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Victoria laughed softly. “William always did enjoy drama.”
Pike ignored her.
“Elena signed the document three weeks ago after I received a sealed instruction from the Ashcroft trust.”
“I signed papers for the nursery foundation.”
“The will was among them.”
Elena stared at him.
“You hid a will inside charity papers?”
“Your father ordered me to make sure you signed without alerting anyone who might pressure you to revoke it.”
“That is not protection. That is deception.”
“Yes.”
The simple answer made her angrier.
“What does it say?”
Pike opened his leather case.
“The majority of your estate passes to your child through an independent trust. Your husband receives no controlling interest. Neither does his family.”
Victoria’s face remained still.
Pike continued.
“If you die before delivery, the trust remains frozen until the child is born or legally determined not to have survived.”
Daniel frowned. “Then killing Elena gains no one anything.”
Pike looked at him.
“That is only the first clause.”
Elena felt cold.
“What is the second?”
“If Elena or the child dies under suspicious circumstances, a sealed archive is automatically released to three newspapers, the New York attorney general, and a federal prosecutor.”
Victoria stood.
“What archive?”
Pike looked at Elena.
“I don’t know. Your father never gave it to me.”
Rosa whispered, “He gave it to Clara.”
Elena turned.
Clara was her mother.
The mother Elena had been told died giving birth to her.
“What did you say?”
Rosa covered her mouth.
Victoria smiled for the first time all night.
“Oh, Rosa.”
Elena stepped closer to the old maid.
“My mother died when I was born.”
Rosa began to cry.
“No, sweetheart.”
The room tilted.
Rosa reached for her.
Elena stepped back.
“My mother did not die?”
Rosa shook her head.
Pike explained that the second will had one more unusual protection. Elena could not revoke it during the last two months of pregnancy unless two physicians, neither connected to Ashcroft or Whitmore interests, certified her competent.
Victoria gave him a sharp look. “William expected coercion.”
“He expected you,” Pike said.
Daniel moved between them before the argument turned physical.
Elena was not listening anymore.
“Who has copies?”
“Three banks.”
“Which banks?”
“I am not permitted to say.”
She laughed without humor. “There it is again.”
Pike softened. “Your father believed secrecy kept you alive.”
“My father is dead. His secrets are doing an excellent job of trying to kill me.”
That shut everyone up.
Rosa squeezed Elena’s hand. “Your mother used to say the same thing.”
Elena looked at her. “Then perhaps somebody should have listened to her.”
Rosa’s eyes filled, and Elena knew before the confession came that the next secret would be worse than the will.
“She lived for eight more years.”
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