Chapter 9 - WHAT WAS INSIDE THE WALL
“Everybody back!”
Dominic dragged Brooke away as another window shattered.
Firefighters arrived minutes later.
The rain helped.
The cottage survived.
Barely.
By noon, half the kitchen was destroyed, the back hall was black with smoke, and the eastern wall had collapsed.
Brooke sat inside a police cruiser.
Martin was already in custody.
Natalie stood beneath an umbrella, crying as she looked at her mother’s damaged home.
“I’m sorry,” Dominic said.
She shook her head.
“You didn’t do this.”
“I brought Brooke into this family.”
“And I married Peter.”
Dominic looked at her.
Natalie’s face changed.
“I loved him. But he lied about money too.”
“That’s different.”
“Not as different as you think.”
She looked at the cottage.
“We believe people because we want to.”
A firefighter approached.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Yes?”
“We found something inside the damaged wall.”
He led them toward the kitchen.
Behind the plaster was an old steel document box.
Heat had blackened the outside, but the interior was intact.
Dominic opened it.
Inside were financial records.
Letters.
Photographs.
And one envelope marked:
FOR NATALIE.
She opened it.
Catherine’s handwriting filled three pages.
Natalie read silently.
Then stopped.
“What?”
She handed Dominic the letter.
He read.
Their mother had changed the trust six weeks before her death.
Not to reduce Natalie’s inheritance.
To increase it.
The east cottage, thirty acres of land, and a substantial investment account had been placed in Noah’s trust.
But there was something else.
Catherine wrote:
If Dominic marries before discovering this letter, his spouse receives no interest in Mercer family property unless Natalie approves the transfer in writing.
Dominic looked up.
Marcus whistled.
“Your mother really didn’t trust Brooke.”
Natalie kept reading.
Then her face changed.
“What?”
“There’s another name.”
She pointed.
Catherine had written that the trust amendment was prepared after she received information from a private investigator.
The investigator had been looking into Brooke.
And Martin.
Attached was a summary.
Brooke had not met Dominic by accident.
Their first meeting three years earlier at a charity auction had been planned.
Martin had researched Dominic for months.
His interests.
His schedule.
His favorite charities.
Even the women he had dated.
Dominic read the sentence twice.
Natalie whispered, “She targeted you.”
He stared at the page.
Three years of memories shifted in his mind.
The restaurant where they “accidentally” met again.
The art show she had claimed she loved.
The sailing club she had joined.
His mother’s charity gala.
Every coincidence.
Designed.
Marcus’s phone rang.
He answered.
“Vale.”
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Dominic.
“That was the state police.”
“And?”
“They searched Brooke’s car.”
Marcus paused.
“They found a passport.”
“So?”
“Not hers.”
Dominic frowned.
May you like
Marcus held his gaze.
“It belongs to Noah.”
