Chapter 4 - The Thing Grant Came Back For
By the time I reached the house, Grant was gone.
Caleb was furious.
My mother was shaking.
Maisie and June were upstairs with the neighbor.
“He didn’t touch anybody,” Mom said immediately.
I hugged Caleb anyway.
“What did he take?”
We searched.
My office looked untouched.
The safe was locked.
The twins’ trust files remained where I had left them.
Then Caleb walked into the kitchen.
“Mom.”
The drawer beneath the phone was open.
My spare external drive was gone.
It contained years of personal records.
Tax documents.
Business files.
Scanned estate paperwork.
And copies of family identification documents.
Rebecca arrived twenty minutes later.
“Change everything.”
Passwords.
Account access.
Credit freezes.
Company credentials.
We spent the afternoon securing my digital life.
Then Caleb said something that stopped us.
“I recorded him.”
I stared.
“What?”
“When he came in.”
He held up his phone.
“You told me if an adult ever makes me uncomfortable, document before arguing.”
I had said that after an incident at school.
I never imagined he would use it against the man who almost became his stepfather.
Caleb played the video.
Grant entered through the garage.
He looked around.
Then called someone.
“Where did she move it?”
Pause.
“I checked the office.”
Another pause.
“No, Rebecca probably has the original.”
He walked toward the kitchen drawer.
Then:
“If I get the backup, we can see what she already knows.”
Colleen’s voice was faint through the speaker.
Not clear enough for every word.
Clear enough for one sentence.
“Find the trust documents.”
My stomach tightened.
Grant found the external drive.
Then left.
Rebecca immediately documented the recording.
Caleb looked at me.
“Is he going to steal Maisie and June’s money?”
“No.”
I said it with more certainty than I felt.
“Because we’re not going to let him.”
That evening, Grant finally answered Rebecca’s call.
She demanded return of the drive.
He claimed he took it by mistake.
Nobody believed him.
He returned it through a courier.
But our computer consultant examined it.
Someone had connected it to another device.
Copied files.
Which ones?
Mostly financial.
The twins’ trust.
My business ownership.
The deed to my house.
Then one folder I didn’t recognize.
Bennett Family Holdings.
I opened it.
My grandparents had created the entity years earlier.
I thought it was dormant.
It wasn’t.
The company owned a commercial parcel outside town.
Current estimated value:
$1.6 million.
I stared at Rebecca.
“I didn’t know this existed.”
She read the documents.
Then her face changed.
“It isn’t yours.”
“What?”
May you like
“It belongs to Caleb.”
My son had inherited property nobody had ever told me about.
