Chapter 3: What the Fire Could Not Hide
The lawyer removed his glasses and faced them.
“My name is Edwin Hale.
Rose asked me to be here because she expected this reaction.”
Marcus pointed at the papers.
“That signature proves nothing.”
“It proves your father, Thomas, placed the family building in a trust before he passed away,” Edwin said.
“Your grandmother owns sixty percent.
The trust owns the rest.”
Claire leaned over the table.
“Dad left that building to us.”
“No,” Rose said.
“That is what Marcus told you.”
Marcus turned on her.
“You’re confused.”
Rose’s fingers tightened around her teacup.
Daniel moved beside her.
“Don’t speak to Grandma like that.”
“And you stay out of it,” Marcus snapped.
“You’ve been filling her head with nonsense while playing the devoted grandson.”
“I drove her to appointments.
I fixed her roof.
I brought groceries.”
“For a check, apparently.”
Daniel unfolded it and placed it on the table.
“Twenty-five thousand dollars.
It repays what I spent repairing her house after both of you refused to help.”
Claire picked up the check.
“You expect us to believe that?”
Edwin slid a stack of receipts toward her.
“Every dollar is documented.”
Claire dropped the check as though it had burned her.
“What was in our envelopes?” she demanded.
“A letter asking each of you to attend a meeting tomorrow,” Rose said.
“And a copy of the yearly accounts Marcus refused to show me.”
Marcus’s jaw stiffened.
“You put financial records through the mail?”
“No,” Edwin replied.
“The letters contained instructions for collecting sealed copies from my office.
Your names were written on them.
They are still there.”
“Then nothing was lost,” Claire said.
“Give them to us.”
Rose looked at the fireplace.
“You did not burn the records.
You burned my last attempt to see whether you cared enough to open something from me.”
Claire opened her mouth, but no words came.
Marcus tapped Thomas’s signature.
“This document is old.
Dad changed his mind.”
“Show us the newer document,” Daniel said.
“I don’t carry private papers around.”
Edwin opened the second document.
“You filed this deed eighteen months after Thomas signed the trust.
It claims Rose transferred her share to a company controlled by you.”
Marcus pulled his hand away from the page.
Rose looked directly at him.
“I never signed that.”
“You signed dozens of papers after Dad passed,” Marcus said.
“You don’t remember half of them.”
“I remember that one,” Rose replied.
“You said it was permission to repair the downstairs shop.”
“It was explained to you.”
“No.
It was hidden from me.”
Claire pushed back her chair.
“Marcus, you told me Grandma had given us the building.”
“She did.”
“Then why is the signature dated on a Tuesday?” Rose asked.
Marcus frowned.
“What difference does that make?”
“I was in hospital that Tuesday.”
Daniel stared at the deed.
“I was with her all day.”
Marcus grabbed the paper, but Edwin’s hand came down over it.
“This is a certified copy,” Edwin said.
“The original is already secured.”
“You came here to accuse me?”
“I came because the building has produced one hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars in rent since Thomas passed away.
Rose has received none of it.”
Claire turned slowly toward her brother.
“You said the units were empty.”
“They were for months.”
Edwin placed the final page in front of her.
It listed deposits, dates, and the name of Marcus’s private company.
Rose rose from her chair.
“Where is my money, Marcus?”
His phone lit up on the table.
May you like
Claire read the caller’s name before he could turn it over.
“Why is Grandma’s bank manager calling you?”
