Chapter 4
Ava found the probate attorney’s name in my father’s old emails.
Mr. Howard Greene.
Retired.
But alive.
He agreed to meet us the next morning.
I walked into his office with Lily asleep against my shoulder and rage sitting under my skin like fire.
Mr. Greene was small, white-haired, and horrified before I finished speaking.
“Mrs. Carter,” he said, “your father did not leave the lake house to be sold.”
My hands went numb.
“He didn’t?”
“No. He placed it in trust for Lily. You were named trustee until she turned twenty-five.”
I stared at him.
“Then why did Ryan say it was sold?”
Mr. Greene opened a folder.
“Because someone filed a petition claiming you were mentally unfit to manage the trust.”
My vision blurred.
“What?”
“The petition was withdrawn before hearing. I assumed you resolved it privately.”
“I never knew.”
He placed another paper in front of me.
My signature.
Not mine.
Similar.
Wrong.
Ryan had forged my name.
Mr. Greene’s face tightened.
“There is more.”
I did not want more.
There was always more.
“Your husband requested copies of all trust documents last year. He claimed you authorized him.”
I whispered, “How much is the house worth?”
Mr. Greene folded his hands.
“About 1.8 million dollars.”
Ava cursed under her breath.
I looked down at Lily sleeping peacefully for the first time since the yard.
My father had tried to protect her.
My husband had tried to turn her pain into access.
I called Detective Monroe from the parking lot.
May you like
“I found the inheritance,” I said.
Then I sent him every document.
