Chapter 3 - THE LAWYER WHO KNEW THE TRUST
Evan Pierce refused to speak to me.
That was his first mistake.
His second was assuming Marcus Hale would stop asking.
By noon, Marcus had filed preservation notices concerning every document Evan’s office had prepared involving my trust, the mortgage, Carter Development, or Hale & Carter Contracting.
Then he found something worse.
Evan had not simply worked on my grandmother’s estate.
He had been removed from it.
“For what?” I asked.
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
“Your grandmother suspected him of sharing confidential information.”
“With who?”
“Your uncle.”
I frowned.
“My uncle Robert?”
“Yes.”
Robert Whitmore had spent most of my childhood appearing at Christmas with expensive wine and disappearing before cleanup.
He had challenged part of my grandmother’s estate plan after she died.
Lost.
Then vanished from my life.
“What does he have to do with Caleb?”
“We don’t know.”
Priya did.
Or at least she found the first connection.
Carter Development’s Fort Lauderdale parcel had previously been owned by Whitmore Coastal Investments.
Robert’s company.
My stomach tightened.
“Caleb bought land from my uncle?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The purchase price is strange.”
“How strange?”
“Market estimate: about five hundred thousand.”
“They paid eight forty.”
“Correct.”
Three hundred forty thousand above market.
Money leaving our company.
Going to Robert.
“What’s on the property?”
“Nothing yet.”
Then Priya showed me zoning applications.
Proposed mixed-use project.
Retail.
Luxury apartments.
Estimated development value:
$28 million.
My pulse changed.
Caleb had been planning something far bigger than an affair or family vacation.
“Could the project work?”
“Yes.”
“Then why hide it?”
Marcus answered.
“Because he didn’t want you owning sixty-eight percent of it.”
Of course.
Carter Development had been built outside our existing company so Caleb and Brooke could own the upside while using Hale & Carter money to finance it.
Classic.
Greedy.
Maybe illegal depending on how funds moved.
Then came another document.
A consulting agreement.
Whitmore Advisory Services.
Consultant:
Robert Whitmore.
Monthly payment:
$22,000.
My uncle had been advising Caleb for almost a year.
I called Robert.
He answered cheerfully.
“Claire. Been a long time.”
“Why are you working with my husband?”
Silence.
Then:
“Who told you?”
“Documents.”
He laughed softly.
“You always were your grandmother’s favorite.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Caleb came to me.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“Why?”
“He wanted to understand your trust.”
Cold moved through me.
“What about it?”
“Asset structure. Voting rights. Property restrictions.”
“You gave him information?”
“General information.”
“You knew he wanted the house.”
“He wanted flexibility.”
“That is a polite word for theft.”
Robert sighed.
“You’re being dramatic.”
Another one.
Apparently men shared scripts.
“Did you connect him to Evan Pierce?”
“Yes.”
There.
“What were they trying to do?”
Silence.
“Robert.”
“You should talk to your husband.”
“I am talking to the man he hired to learn how to get around my grandmother.”
He became cold.
“She tied up too much money in you.”
My mouth went dry.
“In me?”
“You were twenty-four and had no business controlling what she left.”
“I’m thirty-four.”
“And still sentimental.”
“About my own house?”
“About everything.”
Then he said:
“Your grandmother didn’t leave you that property because she trusted you.”
My heart shifted.
“What?”
“She left it because she was hiding something.”
I stopped breathing.
“What was she hiding?”
Robert laughed.
“Ask Marcus why he never told you.”
The line went dead.
I turned toward Marcus.
His face had changed.
“You know.”
He slowly removed his glasses.
“Claire.”
“What didn’t you tell me?”
He looked at my stomach, then back at me.
“Your grandmother’s trust was never only about the house.”
I felt cold.
“What else?”
Marcus slid an old document across the desk.
Asset schedule.
The house.
Investment accounts.
Then one line I had never seen.
Seventy-four percent beneficial interest in Whitmore Coastal Investments.
Robert’s company.
I stared at it.
May you like
My uncle had been running a company that mostly belonged to me.
And apparently no one had thought I should know.
