Chapter 9
The drive into the city the next day was silent.
No one spoke. Evelyn stared out the window, her face pale. Jessica sat in the back, her hand resting on her stomach, looking nervous. I drove, my hands gripping the steering wheel so tight my knuckles were white.
We arrived at the law office at ten o'clock. It was in the tallest building in the city. The kind of place where the elevators are made of glass and the receptionists wear designer suits.
Michael was already there.
He was sitting in the waiting room, dressed in an expensive suit, his hair perfectly styled. Next to him was a woman in her sixties with short blonde hair and cold blue eyes.
This must be the new lawyer.
Michael stood up when he saw us. He looked at Jessica first. His eyes flicked to her stomach. Then he looked at his mother.
And then he looked at me.
There was no sadness in his eyes. No begging. No apology.
Just cold, hard anger.
“Good,” he said. “You're all here.”
The blonde woman stood up and extended her hand.
“I'm Victoria Sterling. I represent Mr. Carter. If you'll follow me, we can get started.”
She led us into a conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. A long mahogany table dominated the room. There were folders stacked neatly in front of every seat.
We sat down. Michael and Victoria on one side. Me, Evelyn, Jessica, and Margaret on the other.
Victoria opened the folder in front of her.
“Thank you all for coming. I'll get straight to the point. My client has filed a civil suit against the three of you seeking two million dollars in damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and conspiracy. However… my client is willing to drop the entire suit. And to sign off on the original divorce settlement. No changes. No fight. On one condition.”
She looked directly at Evelyn.
“Mrs. Carter signs over the house to my client. Immediately. Free and clear. No strings attached.”
Margaret laughed.
“That's absurd. The house is Evelyn's property. She can do whatever she wants with it. And she's already promised it to Sarah. Your client has no legal claim to it whatsoever.”
Victoria smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
“Are you sure about that, Ms. Bennett?”
She pulled a document from her folder and slid it across the table.
“Perhaps you should read this first.”
Margaret picked it up. Her eyes scanned the page. And then her face went white.
“What is it?” I said.
Margaret looked at me. Then at Evelyn.
“It's a will,” she said quietly. “Richard Carter's will. Dated three days before he died.”
She looked at Victoria.
“This says the house was purchased with marital funds. That it belongs equally to Richard and Evelyn. And that upon Richard's death, his fifty percent share passes to his only child. Michael.”
The room went silent.
I turned to Evelyn.
“Is this true?”
Evelyn didn't look at me. She was staring at Victoria.
“Where did you get this?” she whispered.
Victoria smiled again.
“Your husband kept a safety deposit box. In a different bank than the one you use. He never told you about it. Inside, we found the original will. Duly witnessed. Duly notarized. And a letter explaining exactly why he did it.”
She pulled out another piece of paper.
“Would you like me to read it aloud?”
“Read it,” Michael said. His voice was hard.
Victoria cleared her throat.
“'To my beloved wife Evelyn. If you are reading this, I am gone. And I am sorry. I am sorry for the lies. I am sorry for the secrets. But I did what I had to do to protect our son. I know you think Michael is weak. I know you think he needs to be controlled. But he is my boy. And I will not let you spend the rest of your life holding his future hostage because you are still angry at me for what happened all those years ago. The house was bought with my money. Half of it is mine. And my half goes to Michael. He is an adult now. Let him make his own choices. Let him live his own life. And let us finally be even.'”
Victoria put the letter down.
“According to this will, the house is fifty percent Michael's. He has been a co-owner for the last five years. He just didn't know it. Until now.”
She looked at Evelyn.
“Which means, Mrs. Carter, that you have been fraudulently representing yourself as the sole owner of the property for five years. Which means the deed you planned to sign over to Sarah? It's worthless. Because you don't have the right to give away something you don't fully own.”
I looked at Michael.
He was smiling. A cold, cruel smile.
“You see, Mom?” he said. “Dad always had my back. Even from the grave. He knew you would do something like this. He knew you would try to take everything from me.”
He looked at me.
“So here's the deal, Sarah. You get the house? I get the house. Or I sue you for two million dollars. And I win. Because I have the will. And I have the law on my side. And then you get nothing. No house. No money. Nothing. Just a lot of debt from legal fees.”
He leaned back in his chair.
“What's it going to be?”
I looked at Margaret. She was flipping through the documents, her face grim.
“Is it real?” I said.
Margaret nodded slowly.
“The signatures match. The witnesses are real. The notary is still licensed. It looks legitimate.”
She looked at Evelyn.
“Why didn't you tell us about the will?”
Evelyn was still staring at the table. Her hands were shaking.
“Because I didn't know,” she said quietly. “Richard and I… we had an understanding. About money. About property. We kept things separate toward the end. I thought the house was mine. I paid for it with my inheritance from my parents. I never thought he would… I never thought he would go behind my back and change everything.”
She looked up at Michael. Tears were streaming down her face.
“How could you do this to me? I am your mother. I gave you life. I took care of you when you were sick. I bailed you out of every trouble you ever got into. And you do this? You team up with this… this woman to steal from your own family?”
Michael didn't flinch.
“You stole from me first, Mom. You took my house. You took my wife. You took my future. Dad was right about you. You never wanted me to be my own man. You just wanted me to be your little boy. Forever. Well, I'm not your little boy anymore. And I'm done being controlled by you.”
He looked at Victoria.
“Give them until the end of the day to decide. If they don't sign the house over to me by five o'clock, we file. And we don't stop until we own everything.”
He stood up.
“Oh, and one more thing. Jessica? If I get the house, I'm filing for full custody of that baby the second it's born. You think living with these two makes you a good mother? I have a good job. I have a family name. I have resources. A judge will give me that child before you can even say 'unfit mother.'”
He walked to the door.
“Five o'clock, ladies. Don't be late.”
He and Victoria left.
The room was silent for a long time.
Jessica was crying quietly. Margaret was staring at the will. Evelyn was still shaking.
I looked at all of them.
And then I stood up.
“Give me the will.”
Margaret handed it to me. I read it again. Every word.
And then I saw it.
Something small. Something no one else had noticed.
The date.
The will was dated three days before Richard died.
But Richard had been in a coma for the last week of his life.
I remembered it clearly. I had been there. We all had. He had a massive stroke. The doctors said he would never wake up. He was brain dead. We kept him on machines for seven days while the family gathered to say goodbye.
He couldn't have signed a will three days before he died.
He couldn't even breathe on his own.
“Margaret,” I said. “Look at the date.”
She looked. Her eyes widened.
“Oh my God.”
She looked at Evelyn.
“Richard was in a coma the last week of his life. Isn't that right?”
Evelyn blinked.
“Yes. Yes, he was. He never woke up after the stroke. We had to make the decision to take him off the machines.”
Margaret stood up. She was smiling now. A big, bright smile.
“Then this will is worthless. It's a fake. You can't sign a legal document when you're in a coma. You have no idea what you're signing. You have no capacity. This isn't just a bad will. It's fraud. And if Michael filed this in court knowing it was fake? He could go to jail.”
She looked at all of us.
“Here's what we're going to do. We're going to get the medical records. We're going to get the doctors to testify. We're going to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this will is a forgery. And then we're going to countersue. For fraud. For malicious prosecution. For emotional distress. We're going to ask for five million dollars. And we're going to win.”
She picked up the phone.
“And I'm going to call the district attorney. Forging a will is a felony. Michael could be looking at five to ten years in prison.”
Evelyn's hand flew to her mouth.
“Prison?”
“Forgery is serious, Evelyn. And if he used a forged document to try and extort two million dollars from you? That's even worse. This isn't just a civil matter anymore. This is criminal.”
I looked out the window. The city stretched out below us.
Michael thought he had won. He thought he had finally outsmarted everyone. He thought his father's will would save him.
But he had made a mistake.
A big one.
He had gotten greedy.
May you like
And now…
Now he was going to lose everything.
