Chapter 5
Vanessa’s attorney was named Paul Mercer.
I knew him.
He had drafted our prenuptial agreement.
He had smiled at my table.
He had complimented Noah’s drawings.
Now his name sat beside a request for confidential trust information.
I called my lawyer, Nora Singh, before sunrise.
She arrived by eight.
She watched Laura’s video once.
Then the backyard footage.
Then the access logs.
Her expression went still.
Still was dangerous for Nora.
“This was planned,” she said.
“For money?”
“For money. For status. For control. Maybe more.”
“What does that mean?”
She pointed at Laura’s video.
“If Vanessa accessed Laura’s medical records and Laura later reported missing medication, we need to reopen what happened before Laura died.”
I could barely breathe.
Laura’s death had been cancer.
Complications.
A brutal decline.
But what if someone made it faster?
No.
My mind rejected it.
Then I looked at Noah holding the muddy bear.
Vanessa had locked a child in a cage.
My rejection meant nothing.
Nora filed emergency protections around Noah’s trust.
She contacted the police about the USB.
She requested Laura’s old medical records.
By noon, Grace had moved into the guest room.
By evening, Vanessa was out on bail with a no-contact order.
Her first statement went online.
Daniel is grieving and unstable. Noah is deeply troubled. I only tried to help.
There it was.
Laura had warned me.
Vanessa would turn care into accusation.
I looked at Grace.
“She’s going to come after him.”
May you like
Grace put one hand on Noah’s bedroom door.
“Then she comes through all of us first.”
