Chapter 7 - The Original Will
Maria arrested neither woman that night.
We needed to know why Miriam was involved.
The meeting was recorded.
Elaine asked.
"Can Sarah still challenge it?"
Miriam answered.
"Not if the original disappears."
My stomach turned.
Elaine said.
"Evan is cracking."
Miriam replied.
"Then remind him what Sarah did to his mother."
What I did to Rebecca?
I had barely known Rebecca.
She died before Daniel and I met.
The conversation continued.
Elaine worried Mark would talk.
Miriam said.
"He won't."
Caleb whispered.
"That sounded like a threat."
Police followed Miriam.
She drove to a storage facility.
Agents obtained an emergency warrant after she began burning papers inside a metal bin.
The original will was recovered.
Daniel had left the cabin life interest to me.
Then, after my death, the property passed entirely to Evan.
No half to Elaine.
No transfer to her.
More importantly, the will contained a declaration.
Rebecca's temporary share held by Elaine was beneficially owned by Evan.
Elaine had no right to sell it.
But she had borrowed against it.
For years.
She owed almost seven hundred thousand dollars.
If the trust surfaced, she faced fraud charges and financial ruin.
She needed Evan angry at me.
She needed me discredited.
And once I died, she intended to become trustee for Evan until he turned twenty-five.
The cabin would become collateral.
Everything connected.
Then Miriam's computer gave us a deeper shock.
She had drafted the fake suicide note found in my coat.
She had scanned samples of my handwriting months earlier.
How?
From Christmas cards I sent Elaine.
Maria looked at Evan.
"Did you place the note?"
He shook his head.
Then remembered.
Before the drive, Elaine hugged me unusually long.
She had been near my coat.
She planted it.
Evan began crying.
"She used me."
I wanted to say yes.
Instead, I said.
"She did."
He looked at me.
"And I still almost killed you."
That was also true.
Both truths had to survive together.
Then Caleb's phone rang.
Mark had been found.
Alive.
In a motel bathtub.
Unconscious.
Beside him was a note.
May you like
SARAH MADE ME DO IT.
