Chapter 4 - The Draft Will
Police Officer Denise Alvarez arrived just before midnight with a second officer.
She did not treat the strange adapter as proof of spying.
Leah respected her for that.
“It could be something harmless,” Alvarez explained. “A power monitor. A network device. We’ll document it and have someone identify it properly.”
Ethan nodded.
“What about the recording?”
“That depends on your state’s recording laws and where the conversation occurred. Don’t edit the original. Preserve the file and metadata.”
Evelyn approved.
“Finally, someone in this room who likes documentation.”
Even Leah smiled slightly.
The smile vanished when Miriam Cole called at 7:12 the next morning.
Ethan put the call on speaker.
“I received your message,” Miriam said. “And I need you to listen carefully. I did not prepare a new will for you.”
Celeste had not returned.
Ethan stood in the kitchen wearing yesterday’s shirt.
“What?”
“You asked me six weeks ago whether remarriage changed anything in your current estate plan. I explained it could. We discussed reviewing the documents. That was all.”
“What about a trust amendment?”
“I prepared none.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“Did anyone request copies of his existing estate documents?”
Miriam paused.
“Who is this?”
Ethan introduced Evelyn.
Then Miriam said, “My office received an authorization bearing Ethan’s electronic signature. It requested a copy of the current will, revocable trust, business succession agreement, and beneficiary designations.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“I never sent that.”
“When?”
“Thirty-two days ago.”
The same week Grant had visited.
Miriam continued.
“I sent the documents to what appeared to be your secondary email address.”
“I don’t have a secondary email.”
Silence.
Leah opened her laptop.
“Can you tell us the address?”
Miriam did.
It looked almost identical to Ethan’s normal account.
One letter had been changed.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Classic impersonation.”
Ethan sat down.
“So someone obtained my estate documents.”
“Yes.”
“And prepared another will?”
“I can’t answer that.”
Leah asked, “Could someone make one without his real lawyer?”
“Certainly. Anyone can draft a document. Whether it would be valid is another question.”
Ethan rubbed his forehead.
“What would my current plan give Leah?”
Miriam answered cautiously.
“Under the current trust, Leah ultimately receives controlling ownership of Mercer Design Group and the primary residence. Celeste receives a lifetime income interest from a separate marital trust, along with specified personal property.”
Leah blinked.
She had never known the details.
Ethan looked ashamed.
“I should have explained this someday.”
“You still can.”
Evelyn’s voice was gentle for the first time.
Miriam continued.
“If someone wanted to substantially alter Leah’s inheritance, they would need Ethan to execute new documents while legally competent and free from undue influence.”
Evelyn and Leah exchanged a glance.
Make sure he never changes his mind.
Ethan heard it too.
“Send me everything you have.”
After the call, Leah checked the cloud backup of her recording.
There were twenty-eight minutes.
She had remembered only recording around twelve.
Apparently the app had continued while the phone sat unattended on a patio chair.
They listened.
Grant’s voice said, “You cannot push him too hard.”
Celeste answered, “He trusts me.”
“He trusted Mara more.”
A chair scraped.
“Don’t say her name.”
Grant chuckled.
“That still bothers you?”
Leah looked at her father.
Ethan had stopped blinking.
Celeste continued.
“Mara’s dead.”
“I know.”
“Then stop comparing us.”
Grant lowered his voice.
“I'm comparing methods. Mara noticed things.”
Leah’s skin prickled.
Ethan paused the recording.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn stared at the screen.
“Play it.”
He did.
Grant said, “If she’d kept digging through Charles’s files, she would have found you.”
Leah stopped breathing.
Celeste replied, “She didn’t.”
“No. She got sick.”
Ethan slammed the laptop closed.
The sound cracked through the kitchen.
“No.”
Leah recoiled.
Her father stood.
“No. We are not doing this.”
“Dad—”
“Your mother had cancer.”
“I know.”
“She died after eighteen months of treatment. Nobody caused that.”
Evelyn nodded immediately.
“He’s right. Don’t create a conclusion the recording doesn’t support.”
Leah looked at her.
“You heard Grant.”
“I heard two people refer to your mother investigating something before she became ill. That is all.”
Ethan opened the laptop again with trembling hands.
The recording resumed.
Celeste said, “Mara never knew what she was looking at.”
Grant replied.
“She knew enough to make copies.”
Ethan whispered, “Copies of what?”
Then Celeste said four words.
May you like
Words that changed Leah’s memory of her mother’s final year.
“I never found them.”
