Chapter 10 - The Second Will
The hospital discharged me two days later.
I did not return home immediately.
Police considered the Walker house secure, but Margaret arranged a private location for me and the twins anyway.
A small furnished house sat behind a gated property owned by one of Ethan’s oldest friends.
Two officers checked the building before I entered.
It felt ridiculous.
Until I saw the broken nursery camera.
Someone had entered our real house the night before.
Nothing obvious had been stolen.
But Ethan’s home office had been searched.
Drawers opened.
Files moved.
A floor panel beneath his desk had been pried loose.
Someone was still looking for something.
Garage File Seven.
The black flash drive.
Or something worse.
On my first night away from the hospital, I sat between Lily and Noah while Margaret opened another sealed envelope.
“This is Ethan’s revised estate plan.”
I stared at the pages.
The trust for the twins was only part of it.
Ethan had created three layers of protection.
I retained full parental rights and became primary trustee.
If I died or became legally incapacitated, Margaret temporarily controlled the trust.
Not my father.
Not Mark.
Not anyone in my family.
If Margaret could not serve, control passed to an independent trust company in Seattle.
Dad’s entire guardianship plan had already been anticipated.
I almost smiled.
“Ethan locked them out.”
“Completely.”
“Then why are they still fighting?”
“Because they may not know that.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“The revised trust was never publicly filed.”
My heart pounded.
“So Dad thinks if he gets custody—”
“He gets control.”
“But he doesn’t.”
“No.”
For the first time since Ethan died, I felt something close to power.
My father had built his plan around information he no longer possessed.
Then Margaret turned to the final page.
“There is also this.”
It was a clause.
Any person found to have unlawfully interfered with Ethan Walker’s death investigation, Claire Walker’s legal capacity, or the custody of Lily and Noah would be permanently barred from receiving any benefit connected to the estate.
I stared at her.
“He knew.”
“He suspected.”
“No.
He knew enough to write this.”
Margaret nodded.
“He was afraid the twins would become leverage.”
The babies slept beside me.
For a moment, I imagined Ethan sitting awake at night writing these protections.
He must have been terrified.
And he never told me.
Part of me was angry.
Then my phone rang.
Detective Sloan.
“We found your father.”
I stood so quickly my incision pulled painfully.
“Where?”
“Boise Airport.”
“Was he leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Where was he going?”
“Cancún first.
Then there was another ticket to Belize.”
Of course.
“Did he have the flash drive?”
“No.”
My hope vanished.
“What did he have?”
Sloan paused.
“Thirty-eight thousand dollars in cash.”
“That’s it?”
“And a key.”
“What kind of key?”
“A safe deposit key.”
Margaret and I looked at each other.
“Which bank?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Then Sloan added, “There’s something stranger.”
“What?”
“Your father did not buy the tickets.”
“Who did?”
May you like
“Carla.”
*
