Chapter 4 - The Attorney’s Secret
The next morning, I drove down to the financial district of Dallas. The Texas heat was already oppressive, shimmering off the glass skyscrapers like a fever dream. I wore my full dress uniform—Class A greens, ribbons pinned perfectly, medals catching the harsh light. I wanted everyone who saw me today to know exactly who they were dealing with.
Thomas Vance’s office was located on the forty-second floor of a sleek tower overlooking the Trinity River. He was a silver-haired man with sharp blue eyes who had represented my father’s business for thirty years.
When his secretary escorted me into his office, Vance stood up so fast he nearly knocked his leather chair over.
"Claire," he breathed, coming around the desk to grasp my hands. "Thank God you're alive. Vanessa told me you were KIA in an undisclosed operation. She presented a forged Department of Defense death notification three months ago."
A cold rage settled deep into my chest. "She told you I was dead?"
"Yes," Vance said, his face pale. "She used that, along with a power of attorney document, to freeze the primary estate funds and begin the probate process. I tried to challenge it, but with your father dead and you reported deceased, Vanessa was the sole remaining beneficiary under the terms of the revised will she produced."
"The revised will is a fake, Thomas," I said, placing my father's ledger and the thumb drive onto his desk. "And my father didn't die of natural causes. He was murdered."
Vance sank back into his chair, his eyes scanning the ledger pages I opened for him. As he read my father’s final notes, his expression transformed from shock to absolute fury.
"This is monstrous," Vance whispered. "She poisoned Arthur? And Evelyn... where is Evelyn?"
"She was locked in a dog crate in the courtyard when I got home yesterday," I said, my voice deadpan, devoid of emotion. "Starved. Drugged. I've already documented the physical abuse. But I need the real will, Thomas. The one Vanessa tried to bury."
Vance didn't say a word. He walked over to a massive biometric safe built into the wall of his office. He scanned his thumb, typed in a complex code, and pulled out a thick, wax-sealed manila envelope.
"Your father came to me in secret five months ago," Vance said, handing me the envelope. "He suspected Vanessa was up to something, though he didn't realize the extent of her malice at the time. This is the true Last Will and Testament of Arthur Whitmore Jr. It leaves ninety percent of the estate to you, creates a lifetime medical trust for Evelyn, and leaves Vanessa with exactly one dollar—conditional on her signing a non-disclosure agreement."
"This is exactly what we need to strip her of the house," I said.
"It's more than that," Vance said, his eyes gleaming with professional vengeance. "With this will, and the financial tracking in that ledger, Vanessa and Julian haven't just committed fraud. They've committed Grand Larceny, Bank Fraud, and Conspiracy to Commit Murder. But Claire, you have to be careful. As your father noted, Vanessa’s brother is Deputy Chief Henderson of the Dallas PD. If you try to file this locally, the evidence will disappear before it hits a detective's desk."
"I’m not going to the local police," I said, picking up the envelope. "I have a contact at the FBI’s white-collar crime and public corruption unit in Fort Worth. An old academy friend. But we have a problem."
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"What's that?" Vance asked.
"Vanessa and Julian aren't going to run," I said. "They think they've already won. And when Julian wakes up from the bruising I gave him yesterday, he's going to come looking for blood."
