Chapter 2 - THE ONE PHONE CALL
Audrey pulled into the parking lot of a small boutique hotel twenty minutes later.
Her hands had finally started shaking.
She hated that.
Not because fear embarrassed her, but because Maisie could feel everything.
The baby had spent five days entering a world that apparently contained a father who ignored her birth and a grandmother who believed betrayal was acceptable as long as nobody raised their voice.
Audrey checked into a ground-floor suite.
Only after locking the door did she call Nathan again.
“Tell me everything.”
Nathan Cross had represented Audrey’s family for eleven years.
He knew every trust, title, partnership, insurance policy, and ugly clause Audrey hoped never to use.
“The county electronic filing system flagged a deed request at 8:12 this morning,” he said.
“For my house?”
“Yes.”
The Richmond property had belonged to Audrey’s maternal grandparents before her mother inherited it.
When Audrey married Derek, she had intentionally kept the property separate.
Derek knew that.
Or at least Audrey thought he did.
“Who filed?”
“The submission was made through Halston Property Management LLC.”
Audrey frowned.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“It was incorporated six weeks ago.”
“Owner?”
Nathan paused.
“Lorraine Halston.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Of course.
“What does the document say?”
“That you transferred the residence to the LLC for one dollar.”
She laughed.
It was the wrong sound.
“I was in labor five days ago, Nathan.”
“The document is dated two days before that.”
“I signed nothing.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because I notarized your legitimate estate documents that afternoon. You were sitting in my conference room from two until nearly four.”
Audrey looked at Maisie sleeping beside her.
“So they forged it.”
“It appears that way.”
“And if the county accepted it?”
“They didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Your grandfather was paranoid.”
That almost made Audrey smile.
Nathan continued.
“The property has a title-monitoring restriction requiring secondary verification for any transfer outside your family trust.”
Derek used to mock that clause.
He called it “dead rich people bureaucracy.”
Dead rich people bureaucracy had just saved his wife’s house.
Nathan lowered his voice.
“There’s more.”
There always was.
“What?”
“Somebody requested a valuation of Vance Capital.”
Audrey sat up.
That was different.
The mansion was expensive.
Vance Capital was generational wealth.
Audrey owned forty-eight percent of the private investment company her grandfather founded.
The shares were held separately from her marriage.
“What kind of valuation?”
“Marital dissolution.”
Her mouth went dry.
“Derek filed for divorce?”
“No.”
“Then why would anyone request that?”
“To calculate what might be claimed if he did.”
Audrey thought of Sienna.
Her suitcase.
Her dress.
The confidence with which she had sat in Audrey’s bedroom.
Maybe Derek hadn’t simply cheated.
Maybe he had already written Audrey out of the story.
“What else?”
Nathan hesitated.
“Someone has been building a file suggesting you’re financially unstable.”
Audrey laughed again.
This time there was no humor.
“I’m chief operating officer of a private equity firm.”
“They aren’t claiming incompetence professionally.”
“What are they claiming?”
“Postpartum instability.”
Audrey’s blood went cold.
She had given birth five days ago.
“How could anyone build that file already?”
Nathan didn’t answer immediately.
Then:
“They started before Maisie was born.”
Audrey stared at the wall.
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Her phone began vibrating.
Derek.
She ignored it.
Then Lorraine.
Ignored.
Then Derek again.
A text appeared.
STOP WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING.
Another:
SIENNA IS LEAVING. YOU GOT WHAT YOU WANTED.
Audrey stared.
As if Sienna were the problem.
A third message appeared.
YOU CANNOT TAKE MY DAUGHTER AWAY FROM ME.
That one mattered.
Audrey forwarded it to Nathan.
“I want every communication preserved.”
“Already happening.”
“And Nathan?”
“Yes?”
“Tomorrow, I want Derek formally notified that he no longer has permission to occupy my property.”
Nathan paused.
“That will escalate things.”
“They escalated things while I was giving birth.”
“All right.”
Audrey looked at Maisie.
“When?”
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
“Make sure someone is at the gate.”
Nathan understood immediately.
“You don’t want him served privately.”
“No.”
Audrey’s voice became steady again.
“I want him to read every page.”
That night, Derek sent thirty-one messages.
Audrey answered none.
At 1:07 a.m., Sienna sent one.
I THINK DEREK LIED TO ME TOO.
Audrey stared at it.
Then another arrived.
HE TOLD ME THE HOUSE BELONGED TO HIM.
May you like
And another.
HE SAID YOU WERE ALREADY GONE.
