Chapter 6
The probate file had been altered.
Not obviously.
Not by someone careless.
But Nora was not careless either.
She found two versions of my father’s will.
The one Ryan and Victor had shown me left a modest inheritance delayed by estate debts.
The original left me nearly everything.
The house in Nashville.
A savings account.
A life insurance payout.
And one sealed letter.
The sealed letter was missing.
I felt like a child again.
My father had died suddenly six months after I married Ryan.
I had been grieving so hard I let Ryan handle paperwork.
He said he was helping.
Linda said family men handle these things.
Victor said legal language would overwhelm me.
I let them stand between me and my father’s last words.
Nora’s investigator found the missing letter in Victor’s safe deposit box.
We opened it in her office.
My hands shook.
Emily,
If I am gone, trust your instincts before anyone’s explanations.
Your husband’s uncle has been asking questions about my accounts. Linda has been too interested in your inheritance. I do not trust them.
Tears blurred the ink.
I kept reading.
I changed my will to protect you. If anyone tells you there are debts, demand records. If anyone says I forgot, know this: I loved you clearly until the end.
I broke.
Megan held me while I sobbed into her shoulder.
My father had tried to warn me.
They stole the warning.
Then Nora found the final page.
It named a man I did not know.
Dr. Alan Pierce of Rosehill Memory Care.
May you like
My father wrote:
If anything happens to me, ask why Dr. Pierce wanted me declared incompetent.
