Chapter 14 - THE NIGHT MOM CHANGED EVERYTHING
Derek had never met Mom.
At least that was what Vanessa told me.
It was another lie.
Two weeks before Mom died, Derek visited the house with Patricia.
Vanessa was not there.
A neighbor’s doorbell camera captured his car.
Derek told prosecutors Patricia introduced him as a “business consultant.”
Mom was heavily medicated.
Derek brought documents.
He tried to convince her that Bellamy needed emergency restructuring.
She refused.
Then Mom asked him to leave.
According to Derek, Patricia became furious afterward.
“She said Margaret was ruining the family.”
Derek told investigators.
“She said Claire had poisoned her against the sale.”
That same night, Mom called Harold.
She changed the survivorship provision.
She created the sealed warning letter.
She also did something nobody told Vanessa or me.
She created a separate voting trust.
If either daughter’s rights were challenged through fraud, incapacity, coercion, or suspicious injury before final distribution, both daughters’ voting shares automatically transferred temporarily to an independent trustee.
Not Vanessa.
Not me.
Not Patricia.
Harold.
Mom had anticipated someone might try to manipulate us.
The cannon activated that protection.
Which meant everything Derek did had the opposite effect.
Instead of controlling my shares, he locked everyone out.
Patricia learned that only after the police investigation began.
That explained her panic.
The Bellamy sale was now impossible without a full trustee review.
Derek gave prosecutors one more piece of information.
Patricia had paid him an additional fifty thousand dollars the morning after the wedding.
“For what?”
Marissa asked.
“To keep Claire quiet.”
“How?”
Derek looked at the table.
“She wanted me to make sure Vanessa controlled the story.”
“What story?”
“That it was a prank.”
“And if Claire went to police?”
Derek hesitated.
“Patricia said we should release videos making Claire look drunk and unstable.”
My mouth went dry.
There were videos.
At the rehearsal dinner, Derek repeatedly sent drinks to my table.
I barely touched them.
But edited clips could make it appear otherwise.
They had prepared to attack my credibility before I even knew I needed to defend myself.
Then Derek said something else.
“There was supposed to be another camera at the reception.”
Aaron frowned when police asked him.
Another camera?
He remembered seeing a tiny black device taped beneath the floral arch.
The venue staff did not install it.
Police searched storage boxes collected after the wedding.
They found the camera.
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Its memory card was still inside.
And it had recorded the entire cannon blast from the front.
