Chapter 6: What His Mother Left Behind
Hargrove's office was on the fourth floor of a building that smelled like old wood and document paper.
The attorney was in his seventies, white-haired, with the careful manner of a man who had spent decades delivering news that changed people's lives.
He had a folder on the desk when Adrian sat down.
"Your mother commissioned this report fourteen months before she passed," Hargrove said.
"She didn't tell you because she wasn't certain you'd believe her.
She was afraid it would push you away from her and closer to Vanessa."
"Show me."
Hargrove opened the folder and turned it around.
The first page was a photograph.
A wedding.
Not Adrian's wedding.
An older one — the image slightly grainy, printed from a digital file.
Vanessa in a different dress, standing beside a man Adrian had never seen.
The man was heavyset, mid-fifties, smiling broadly.
"His name was Gerald Marsh," Hargrove said.
"They married nine years ago.
He was a property developer.
Substantial assets."
"What happened to him?"
"He d*ed fourteen months after the wedding.
Heart failure, officially.
He was fifty-four and had no prior cardiac history." Hargrove turned to the next page.
"His daughter from a previous marriage — a woman named Sandra Marsh — contested the estate.
She claimed Vanessa had manipulated Gerald in the final months of his life, changed his will, and isolated him from his family."
"Did she win?"
"No.
The court found insufficient evidence.
Vanessa received the full estate." He paused.
"Sandra Marsh lost everything in legal fees.
She's been trying to find someone who would listen ever since."
Adrian stared at the page.
"There's more," Hargrove said quietly.
He turned to a third page.
A private investigator's notes.
Dates, addresses, names.
Adrian read slowly.
Garrett Cole.
Property attorney.
Specializing in estate transfers.
The same name Marcus had given him the night before.
"She's been meeting with this man," Adrian said.
"For approximately four months, according to what we've been able to piece together recently.
Your mother's original report didn't include him — he came later." Hargrove folded his hands.
"Adrian, I want to be careful about what I say next.
But I believe Vanessa has been consulting with Cole about your estate.
Your mother's estate passed to you, not to her.
If something were to happen to you—"
Adrian set the page down.
The room was very quiet.
"The children," he said.
"If something happened to you and there was no updated will clearly protecting them," Hargrove said, "the legal situation would be complicated.
Vanessa, as their mother, would have significant standing."
Adrian looked at the wedding photograph again.
The man named Gerald.
Smiling.
No idea.
"Sandra Marsh," Adrian said.
"The daughter.
Do you have contact information for her?"
Hargrove reached into the folder and produced a single card.
"She left this with me six months ago," he said.
"She told me to give it to you when the time came." He paused.
"She said she'd been waiting."
Adrian took the card.
He stood up, shook Hargrove's hand, and walked out with the folder under his arm.
In the elevator, he looked at the card.
A phone number.
A name.
And below the name, in small handwriting: *She did the same thing to my father.
Please don't let her do it to your children.*
May you like
He pressed the lobby button.
He called the number before the doors opened.
