Chapter 5: The Woman Who Changed Sides
I covered the phone with my shoe until Patrick walked away.
Gavin closed the door.
“Did Chloe give you that?”
The screen lit up with a message.
DON’T LET PATRICK SEE THIS.
PLAY FILE 12.
I pressed the recording.
Patrick’s voice filled the room.
“Once Serena gives birth, the trust activates.
Dr.
Vane declares her unstable, I exercise the power of attorney, and the company receives the transfer.”
Chloe’s recorded voice trembled.
“What happens to Serena?”
“She gets a comfortable room somewhere quiet.”
“And the baby?”
“Gavin will pay anything for his grandchild.”
I stopped the file.
“He was going to trade my baby for my own inheritance.”
Gavin’s fingers tightened around his cane.
“Helen needs this now.”
The door swung open before he could call her.
Chloe stepped inside and locked it behind her.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“You smiled at me in that courtroom,” I replied.
“You sat beside him while he took my home.”
“I thought you were divorcing him for money.”
“He told you that?”
“He told me you lied about the baby and that the trust belonged to him.” Chloe placed a key card on the table.
“Then I heard him arranging the medical petition.”
Gavin picked up the phone.
“Will you testify?”
Patrick’s voice came from the hallway.
“Chloe, open this door.”
She went pale but remained where she was.
“You owe me an answer,” I said.
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.” Chloe pushed the key card toward me.
“Trust what it opens.
Patrick keeps the original files in his private office.”
The handle shook.
“Chloe,” Patrick called, “I can make your part in this disappear.
Walk out now, and I’ll put half a million dollars in your account.”
She looked at the door.
I held my breath.
“Half a million?” Chloe called back.
“You promised me two.”
Patrick stopped rattling the handle.
“Then two,” he said.
“But if you stay with them, I’ll show investigators every transfer you made for me.”
Chloe unlocked the door and faced him.
“You mean the transfers you ordered from an account in Serena’s name?”
Patrick’s face hardened.
“You’ll lose everything.”
“I already lost whatever I thought I had with you.”
He reached for the silver phone, but Gavin’s security officer stepped between them.
“Move,” Patrick ordered.
“No,” the officer said.
Helen hurried into the room.
She connected the phone to her laptop and opened the stored files.
“The recording helps,” she said, “but Patrick may challenge how it was obtained.
We need the original power-of-attorney file and the document history.”
Chloe pointed to the key card.
“His office computer has both.
The password is Serena’s foster identification number.”
My stomach turned.
Helen entered the number remotely.
A folder opened, then vanished from the screen.
“Someone is deleting it,” she said.
Patrick lifted his own phone.
“By midnight,” he said, “there won’t be a single file left to prove any of this.”
Chloe grabbed Helen’s laptop.
“The transfer is already scheduled,” she said.
“Patrick moved it forward.”
May you like
A red timer appeared beneath my name.
Ten minutes remained before one hundred and eighty million dollars left my trust.
