Chapter 10 - THE MISSING TRUST
Evelyn discovered another reason Dominic needed Leo removed.
My father had created a trust before his death.
It held shares in Sterling International and several properties.
The trust passed to my child when he turned twenty-five.
If the child died before that age, control transferred to my spouse.
Dominic knew.
I did not.
My father placed the documents with our former family attorney, Samuel Grant.
Samuel died during my first year in Singapore.
His successor transferred the records to Dominic.
Dominic hid them.
The trust was worth nearly ninety million dollars.
Leo was not only an inconvenience.
He was the final barrier between Dominic and an independent fortune.
The life insurance policy would provide immediate money.
The trust would provide control.
The company fraud would be buried beneath grief.
Dominic planned to tell me Leo drowned after escaping supervision.
Victoria would confirm his history of “dangerous behavior.”
Brooke would comfort Dominic publicly.
Liam would appear beside them as the child they were protecting.
Within months, they expected me to collapse emotionally or return permanently overseas.
“Did Brooke know everything?” I asked Evelyn.
“Messages suggest she knew about the trust.”
“She objected to the timing of Leo’s death.”
“Not the plan itself.”
I sat alone after Evelyn left.
There are discoveries so ugly that anger cannot hold them.
Only silence can.
Dominic had once cried when Leo was born.
He held our son in the hospital and promised to become a better man.
I believed fatherhood had awakened something inside him.
Perhaps it had.
Perhaps he slowly killed that part of himself through a thousand selfish choices.
A recovered message from Brooke showed how far he had fallen.
Brooke wrote:
Once the difficult child is gone, Liam can take his place publicly.
Dominic answered:
Clara will need something to mother.
The words made me physically ill.
He imagined handing me another child as though children were interchangeable.
As though grief could be redirected.
As though Liam’s life could be assigned to replace the one they planned to erase.
Detective Reyes added attempted murder and conspiracy charges.
Dominic’s bail request was denied.
Victoria was arrested at a private airport while attempting to leave for Switzerland.
She carried two passports, cash, and a diamond necklace belonging to me.
The necklace had been a gift from my mother.
Victoria wore it through airport security.
When officers removed it, she screamed that the Sterling family owned everything.
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The video reached the news before her attorney could stop it.
For the first time, the public saw the woman beneath the pearls.
