Chapter 5 - WHAT CAROLINE LEFT HER
Caroline had inherited six apartment buildings from her father.
She never called them an empire.
She called them places where people lived.
When a tenant lost work, she arranged a payment plan.
When a boiler failed, she went herself.
After her death, the buildings went into a trust for Lily.
I managed it.
Mason handled the properties.
And Victoria had spent the last three months telling me how exhausted I looked.
“Let me take some of this off your plate.”
I had thought that was love.
Our attorney, Beth Lawson, arrived the next morning carrying reading glasses and no patience.
She spread the documents across the kitchen table.
“These are drafts. Without your signature and the required steps, they don’t change the trust.”
I exhaled.
“Then she couldn’t do anything?”
“Not through these. But someone prepared them to look routine.”
She tapped the property authorization.
“This would let her direct money and make decisions you currently approve.”
“What about Lily?”
“The boarding arrangement is separate.”
I stared at her.
“What boarding arrangement?”
Beth turned a page.
A residential school in Vermont.
An application.
A proposed arrival date.
Two weeks after our honeymoon.
Lily had never spent a night away from me since Caroline’s funeral.
“There’s a deposit,” Beth said.
“Paid by whom?”
“An account associated with your property company.”
I pushed back from the table.
Rosa stood at the sink, gripping a dish towel.
“She told me I’d be leaving after the wedding,” she said.
I looked at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her eyes filled.
“She said you wanted to tell Lily yourself. She showed me a message from your number.”
I checked my phone.
Nothing.
Victoria knew my passcode.
She had helped answer messages while I slept through the worst months.
Owen walked in with Lily’s breakfast plate.
“Eat something,” he told me.
I couldn’t.
Beth was still turning pages.
Then she stopped at a set of bank instructions.
“Daniel. Did you authorize this transfer?”
The amount was $184,000.
May you like
The date was three days before Caroline died.
At the bottom, beneath the approval box, was my signature.
