Chapter 10 - THE ORIGINAL WILL
Madison had found it two years earlier.
Inside Victoria’s private safe.
She took photos.
Then put it back.
Why?
Insurance.
Against her own mother.
Everyone in that house collected insurance against everyone else.
The original will matched Dad’s letter.
Carter-Lane shares to me.
Lake house to me.
A separate trust for Madison.
Victoria received a lifetime housing allowance.
Nothing more.
Madison had copies.
Not the original.
Victoria had moved it.
But the photographs showed signatures.
Witnesses.
Attorney seal.
One witness was still alive.
Samuel Reed.
Dad’s former estate lawyer.
He had disappeared after Dad died.
Daniel found him in Arizona.
Living under his middle name.
Samuel agreed to talk.
Then vanished before boarding his flight.
His hotel room was empty.
Blood on the sink.
No body.
The rage in me changed shape.
This was no longer about inheritance.
People kept disappearing around my father’s secrets.
Police traced Samuel’s rental car.
Abandoned outside Phoenix.
Then a traffic camera caught him in the passenger seat of another vehicle.
Driver.
Owen’s brother.
The same family tied to Victoria’s security network.
A federal kidnapping task force joined.
Daniel made calls.
I stopped him.
“What?”
“You keep making calls and doors open.”
“Yes.”
“I need to know why.”
He stared at me.
“Because I have influence.”
“That isn’t enough.”
He hesitated.
There.
The thing he had not told me.
“My company does government security contracting.”
“So?”
“So some of the people helping us owe me favors.”
I stepped back.
“Legal favors?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel.”
“Mostly.”
I laughed despite myself.
“Mostly?”
He rubbed his jaw.
“I’m trying to be honest.”
“You’re bad at it.”
“I know.”
That tiny, awkward answer broke the tension.
For three seconds.
Then his phone rang.
Samuel had been found.
Alive.
Locked in a storage unit.
He had one broken finger.
He still wanted to testify.
His first words to police were.
“Victoria didn’t poison Robert.”
I stared.
Then Samuel continued.
May you like
“Lawrence Ambrose did.”
