Chapter 4 - The Secret Accomplice
The living room was filled with uniformed officers from the San Jose Police Department and two paramedics who were carefully evaluating Florence in the back bedroom.
Lead Investigator Detective Marcus Vance sat at the dining table, reviewing the video recordings Lucas had provided, alongside the bag of unadministered medications and the land appraisal documents.
"Mr. Weaver," Detective Vance said, setting his pen down on his notepad. "The bruising on your mother’s arms and jaw, combined with the sworn statement from the paramedics regarding her severe dehydration and elevated blood pressure, provides more than enough probable cause for an immediate arrest on charges of elder abuse and felony domestic battery."
Officer Davis stepped out of the bedroom, leading Gwendolyn out in steel handcuffs. Her hands were secured behind her back, her designer clothes rumpled, her hair messy. She looked frantically at Lucas as she was guided toward the front door.
"Lucas! Tell them it’s a mistake!" she begged, tears smearing her makeup. "I did it for us! We could have been rich! We could have bought a mansion in Los Gatos!"
"Take her to the vehicle, Officer," Detective Vance ordered coldly.
As Gwendolyn was marched down the front steps, Lucas sat down across from the detective.
"Detective," Lucas said, pointing to the land deed on the table. "My mother never mentioned owning land in Santa Cruz. Her father was a modest fisherman. How did Gwendolyn even find out about this property?"
Detective Vance opened a manila folder he had pulled from Gwendolyn’s purse during the arrest inventory. Inside were several printed email threads between Gwendolyn and a private law office in San Francisco.
"We ran the contact numbers listed in her phone, Mr. Weaver," Detective Vance revealed. "Your wife wasn't acting alone. For the past eight months, she has been in daily communication with a man named Julian Vance."
Lucas froze. The name hit him like an electric shock. "Julian Vance? As in Vance & Associates Realty?"
"The same," Vance nodded. "Julian Vance is a commercial real estate developer currently under federal scrutiny for predatory land acquisitions along the coast. And according to the state registrar records we just pulled... Julian Vance is also Gwendolyn's former fiancé from college."
Lucas felt his blood turn to ice water.
Every lie, every late-night "working weekend," every time Gwendolyn had encouraged him to take extra long-haul business trips out of state—it all snapped together into a terrifying, seamless picture.
Gwendolyn hadn't just married him out of love seven years ago. She had discovered his mother’s maiden name—Vance—and realized that Florence was the lost, unclaimed heir to the multimillion-dollar oceanfront estate that Julian Vance had been trying to acquire for over a decade.
Gwendolyn had been planted in his life. She had married Lucas to get close to Florence, waiting patiently for the old woman to grow weak enough to have her identity and assets stripped away.
"They weren't just trying to get her to sign a deed, Mr. Weaver," Detective Vance added, his voice dropping into a solemn, heavy register. "If your mother had died of a secondary stroke caused by lack of medication, the title would have passed to you as her sole heir. And as your wife, Gwendolyn would have held legal authority over marital assets—allowing her and Julian to sell the land to his development firm for a fraction of its true value."
Lucas gripped the edge of the mahogany dining table until his knuckles turned bone-white.
May you like
"Where is Julian Vance right now?" Lucas asked, his voice deathly quiet.
"He’s currently waiting at a luxury hotel in downtown San Jose," Detective Vance replied, a razor-sharp smile touching his lips. "He’s expecting Gwendolyn to deliver the signed quitclaim deed by five o'clock today."
