Chapter 4
For the next month, I was never alone.
Gabriel drove me to school.
Lucille picked me up.
A deputy occasionally parked near the farmhouse.
At ten years old, I learned to look behind me before walking into grocery stores.
That habit stayed with me for years.
The threatening photograph was tested.
No fingerprints.
The paper came from an ordinary pharmacy photo printer.
No useful camera data.
Another dead end.
Then Veronica denied everything.
Through her attorney, she said Gabriel had probably created the threat himself.
“To make me look dangerous.”
I heard that sentence years later when Evelyn repeated it from court filings.
At ten, I simply asked, “Why would Gabriel scare me?”
Evelyn answered, “He wouldn’t.”
Veronica’s attorneys attacked the older will.
They claimed Dad had changed his mind.
They claimed the newer version giving Veronica almost everything represented his true wishes.
They produced witnesses.
One was a man named Randall Pike.
Dad’s former business adviser.
He testified that Dad worried I was “too young to inherit substantial assets.”
I wanted to scream.
Of course I was too young.
That was why Dad created a trust.
Evelyn destroyed Randall’s argument in fifteen minutes.
She showed him the trust documents.
Then asked why Dad would need to disinherit me instead of keeping the assets protected until adulthood.
Randall had no good answer.
Then she asked whether Veronica had paid him.
He said no.
Evelyn produced a check.
Twenty thousand dollars.
His face collapsed.
That was my first glimpse of what good questioning could do.
Facts did not shout.
They waited.
Then they cornered you.
The court ordered handwriting analysis of Dad’s disputed will.
Three experts examined it.
Two concluded the signature was likely forged.
One was uncertain.
Veronica attacked the experts.
Then something unexpected happened.
Dad’s old attorney came forward.
His name was Harold Mason.
He had been recovering from heart surgery and missed the first months of the case.
When he returned to work, he saw newspaper coverage.
He called Evelyn.
They met privately.
Then Gabriel and I were invited.
Harold looked at me for a long time.
“You look like your father.”
I hated hearing that because it always made me want to cry.
He opened his files.
“Alexander did ask me to prepare a new will.”
My stomach dropped.
Gabriel went rigid.
“When?”
“Three weeks before his hospitalization.”
Veronica’s version was dated around then.
For one awful second, I thought she had been telling the truth.
Harold continued.
“But he never signed it.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“What were the terms?”
Harold handed her a draft.
Dad planned to increase Veronica’s direct cash inheritance.
Not give her everything.
My trust remained the primary beneficiary.
Gabriel remained guardian.
My chest loosened.
“So the will she filed?”
“Was not prepared by my office.”
“Did Alexander sign any new will?”
“No.”
“Did he discuss one with another attorney?”
“Not that I knew.”
Then Harold told us why Dad wanted the change.
“He was frightened.”
“Of Veronica?” Gabriel asked.
Harold hesitated.
“Of dying.”
Dad had started feeling sick earlier than anyone realized.
He suspected cancer.
He wanted to make sure Veronica had enough money to live comfortably.
“He also wanted protections around Matthew’s trust strengthened.”
“Why?”
Harold looked at me.
“Because he believed Veronica was becoming increasingly focused on money.”
There it was.
My father knew.
Too late.
But he knew.
Harold had more.
Dad instructed him to commission an independent audit of Banks Restoration.
The audit had been scheduled for July 15.
Three days after Dad died.
Veronica canceled it.
“Why?” I asked.
Harold looked grim.
“She said Alexander’s death made it unnecessary.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“It made it more necessary.”
Exactly.
Evelyn requested an emergency audit.
That was when everything exploded.
Thomas Reid found nearly $900,000 in suspicious vendor payments going back three years.
Most eventually led to Shane Porter.
But Shane had not kept the money.
Large portions went somewhere else.
A company called Vantage Southern Holdings.
Registered in Alabama.
Owner hidden behind another company.
Thomas traced it further.
Finally, he found the beneficial owner.
Veronica.
Gabriel stared at the report.
“She stole almost a million dollars from Alexander’s company.”
Thomas nodded.
“And possibly more.”
I asked, “Why didn’t Dad notice?”
Gabriel looked uncomfortable.
“Because your father trusted people.”
That included Veronica.
It included Randall Pike.
It included the accounting staff who approved invoices.
Trust, I learned, could be expensive.
The judge expanded the asset freeze.
Veronica was furious.
Her attorney requested funds for living expenses.
She still occupied our house.
My house someday, according to Dad’s real will.
I had not been back since the funeral.
Then one afternoon, Evelyn called.
“The court authorized an inventory.”
Gabriel nodded.
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Can Matthew go?”
She looked at me.
“Only if he wants.”
I did not.
Then I did.
I needed something from Dad’s bedroom.
Not money.
Not documents.
His watch.
A cheap silver Timex.
Dad wore it every day.
Veronica hated it because she had bought him a Rolex.
He preferred the Timex because my mother gave it to him before I was born.
I wanted it.
The next morning, we drove to Peachtree City.
My stomach hurt when the house appeared.
Same driveway.
Same basketball hoop.
Same flowerbeds.
But it felt like someone else’s home.
Veronica stood inside with her attorney.
When she saw me, her expression hardened.
“You.”
Gabriel moved slightly in front of me.
Evelyn said, “Matthew has court authorization to collect personal childhood items.”
Veronica laughed.
“Of course he does.”
I walked upstairs.
My bedroom was almost empty.
Boxes lined the wall.
My toys packed.
My clothes stuffed into garbage bags.
I stood there shaking.
She had begun erasing me immediately.
Lucille hugged me.
“Take your time.”
I packed photos.
Books.
My stuffed shark.
Then I went to Dad’s room.
The Timex was gone.
I asked the court inventory officer.
He checked the list.
“No watch.”
Veronica stood in the doorway.
“Looking for something?”
“Dad’s watch.”
She smiled.
“I threw it away.”
My throat closed.
“Why?”
“It was junk.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
I stopped him.
I don’t know why.
Maybe I wanted to prove she could not make me cry.
Then I saw something behind her.
A stack of boxes.
One labeled DONATE.
Dad’s old clothes.
I walked past her.
Inside the box, under two belts, was the Timex.
She had lied again.
I picked it up.
The battery had stopped.
10:16.
I held it to my chest.
Veronica rolled her eyes.
“So dramatic.”
That was when I noticed another object in the box.
Dad’s leather planner.
I pulled it out.
Veronica’s face changed.
“Put that down.”
Everyone froze.
I looked at her.
“It’s Dad’s.”
“It contains business information.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Then it belongs in the estate inventory.”
“No.”
Too fast.
Evelyn noticed.
“Why are you worried about a planner?”
“I’m not.”
I handed it to the inventory officer.
Veronica reached for it.
He moved it away.
Her face went pale.
That reaction told us everything.
We opened it at Evelyn’s office.
Most pages were ordinary.
Appointments.
Vendor meetings.
My dentist appointment.
Then late June.
Dad had written several initials.
V.P.
R.P.
S.P.
And one sentence.
Ask G about old account before confronting V.
G.
Gabriel.
He stared.
“What old account?”
No one knew.
Then we turned to July 3.
Dad had written:
Found transfer trail. Not just Veronica. Randall involved. Shane moving funds.
July 5:
Need copy before they know.
July 7:
Feeling worse. Hospital tomorrow if fever continues.
Then July 8.
The day he was admitted.
One final line:
Receipt hidden where only Matthew will keep it.
My hand went to my pocket.
The CVS receipt.
I unfolded it.
Gabriel’s name.
Phone number.
Nothing else.
Evelyn frowned.
“Maybe he meant the receipt itself.”
But something Dad had said returned.
Forgive me, son.
I turned the paper over.
Blank.
Mostly.
There were pharmacy codes.
Faded printing.
I noticed nothing unusual.
At ten, nobody did.
Evelyn sealed the receipt in a plastic sleeve to preserve it.
Then Gabriel stared at the planner.
“Old account.”
He disappeared into his office.
An hour later, he returned carrying a box from his garage.
Inside were records from the company he and Dad inherited years ago.
Before their fight.
Before Dad bought him out.
One bank statement showed an account that had supposedly been closed in 1996.
It wasn’t.
Small transfers had continued for years.
Then, six months earlier, a deposit.
$250,000.
Thomas traced the sender.
Vantage Southern Holdings.
Veronica’s secret company.
I didn’t understand.
“Why would she send Dad money?”
Thomas shook his head.
“She didn’t.”
The account was not Dad’s anymore.
Ownership had been changed twelve years earlier.
To Gabriel.
Gabriel stared.
“I forgot this existed.”
Someone had deposited stolen company money into an account legally connected to him.
Evelyn understood immediately.
“They were setting you up.”
Gabriel’s face went white.
If Dad had discovered the fraud and accused Veronica, the money trail would point toward his estranged brother.
The brother he had fought with.
The brother removed from my guardianship paperwork.
Gabriel whispered, “She planned to blame me.”
Then Evelyn’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression changed.
“Where?”
She hung up.
“What happened?” Gabriel asked.
“The sheriff arrested Shane Porter.”
“For what?”
“He tried to leave the state.”
My heart jumped.
“Will he talk?”
Evelyn looked at me.
“He already is.”
Shane claimed Veronica designed the vendor scheme.
Randall approved payments.
Shane created companies.
But then he said something nobody expected.
“The money wasn’t just stolen.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What was it for?”
Evelyn looked toward me.
“Shane says Veronica was building a fund.”
“For what?”
“To leave Alexander.”
I almost felt relieved.
Stealing was terrible.
But leaving Dad was not the darkest thing I had feared.
Then Evelyn finished.
“She planned to leave him once she controlled enough money.”
Gabriel nodded slowly.
“That explains the theft.”
“No.”
Evelyn’s expression stayed grim.
“Because according to Shane, Alexander discovered part of the scheme in June.”
My stomach tightened.
“And Veronica changed the plan.”
“What plan?”
Evelyn hesitated.
May you like
Then said it.
“She decided it would be financially better if Alexander died married to her.”
