Chương 16
I felt my stomach tighten.
“That was the day Erica mentioned.”
“Most likely.”
Samuel placed a photocopy on the table.
It was a handwritten note in Arthur’s blocky script.
At the top was a date.
Beneath it, one sentence had been underlined twice.
Curtis asked if I have signed anything new and offered to bring someone to review my estate.
I read it again.
Samuel continued.
“Arthur initially thought Curtis was simply anxious about the inheritance.”
“That would have been enough.”
“Yes.”
“But there was more.”
Samuel turned another page.
“Two days later, Arthur’s financial controller, Leonard Shea, contacted him about an unusual request.”
I looked up.
“What request?”
“Curtis had asked for copies of internal ownership schedules and projected estate tax exposure.”
Dana’s pen began moving.
“Did Curtis have authority to request them?”
“Some operational access, yes.”
Samuel looked at me.
“But he specifically asked which assets would pass outside probate and which would be subject to trust control.”
The words were clinical.
The meaning was not.
“He was mapping it.”
Samuel nodded once.
“That was Arthur’s conclusion.”
I felt anger rise, but Dana glanced at me and I remembered her instruction.
Facts first.
“What happened next?”
“Arthur confronted him.”
“When?”
“Six weeks before the hospitalization.”
“The same week as the codicil?”
“Yes.”
I gripped the edge of my chair.
“What did Curtis say?”
Samuel hesitated.
“Arthur wrote a memorandum afterward.”
He slid two pages across the table.
I recognized Arthur’s handwriting immediately.
It was shakier than the letter he left me.
I read.
Curtis denied requesting documents for inheritance purposes.
He said he was preparing for continuity if Arthur became incapacitated.
Arthur asked why continuity planning required knowing whether Vanessa would have rights in the event of divorce.
My breath stopped.
I looked up.
Samuel’s face was grave.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Leonard had heard Curtis ask the question during a call.”
Dana looked at Samuel.
“Was Leonard willing to confirm that?”
“He already has.”
Something cold passed through me.
Samuel continued.
“Arthur asked Curtis directly whether he intended to divorce you.”
I stared at the page.
There was a sentence beneath it.
Curtis laughed and said Vanessa would be fine because she has never cared about money.
I closed my eyes.
That sounded like him.
Not an answer.
A dismissal.
“What did Arthur do?”
“He told Curtis that if he harmed you immediately after his death, he would regret it.”
I looked at Samuel.
“He warned him?”
“Yes.”
“And Curtis still threw me out.”
“Yes.”
For some reason, that was the hardest part.
Not that Arthur had set a condition.
Not that Curtis had been watched.
That Curtis had been warned and had still believed nothing could touch him.
Samuel tapped the file.
“Arthur changed the estate plan the next day.”
I sat back.
The room was silent except for the faint hum of the air conditioner.
Dana broke it.
“Was the condition intended as a deterrent rather than a trap?”
Samuel looked at her.
“Very much so.”
That mattered.
It changed something in me.
Arthur had not sat dying while secretly hoping Curtis would fail.
He had tried to stop him.
He had built a consequence because words had stopped working.
I looked down at Arthur’s note again.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
Samuel answered carefully.
“Because he believed you would either confront Curtis or leave him before Arthur died.”
“Which he thought would make things worse.”
“He feared Curtis would blame you and accelerate whatever he was planning.”
I swallowed.
“He was protecting me by lying to me.”
“I would not phrase it that generously.”
Dana glanced at him.
Samuel’s jaw tightened.
“I argued with him.”
That surprised me.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“I told him you had the right to make informed choices about your own marriage.”
“What did he say?”
“That he had already taken enough from you.”
My eyes burned.
Samuel looked toward the photograph of himself and Arthur beside the fishing boat.
“He thought one more burden would break you.”
I laughed quietly.
“He really did underestimate how much nonsense I could survive.”
Samuel almost smiled.
Dana did not.
“Samuel, what does Curtis know about Leonard’s statement?”
“Nothing from me.”
“And the memorandum?”
“Nothing.”
“Good.”
I looked at her.
“Why good?”
“Because if he challenges the codicil, we should not educate him about every piece of evidence before required disclosure.”
The words made me uncomfortable.
“That sounds like strategy.”
“It is.”
“I don’t want games.”
Dana turned toward me.
“This is not a game.”
Her voice was firm.
“You do not lie.”
“You do not hide what the rules require you to produce.”
“But you also do not volunteer your entire position to someone preparing to attack it.”
I nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
My phone buzzed.
Curtis.
Again.
I ignored it.
A second later, Samuel’s office phone rang.
He looked at the display.
His expression changed.
“Speak of the devil.”
Dana raised one eyebrow.
Samuel answered.
“Good morning, Curtis.”
I could hear Curtis’s voice faintly through the receiver, sharp and fast.
Samuel listened without interrupting.
Then he said, “No.”
Another burst of sound.
“No, I will not release funds for personal use while your beneficial interest remains suspended.”
Curtis’s voice rose.
Samuel’s face hardened.
“I am not freezing assets that belong to you.”
He listened again.
“The distinction is the entire issue.”
Dana wrote something on her pad.
Samuel looked at me once.
Then away.
“No, Vanessa is not directing me.”
Another pause.
“No.”
His voice dropped.
“Do not contact Leonard Shea.”
Dana stopped writing.
So did I.
Curtis said something else.
Samuel leaned forward.
“Because he is a witness to matters relevant to the trust administration.”
My pulse quickened.
Another burst from Curtis.
Then Samuel said, “Your counsel can address that with me.”
He hung up.
I stared at him.
“He knows about Leonard.”
Samuel shook his head.
“He guessed.”
“How?”
“Because I told him not to contact him.”
Dana gave Samuel a flat look.
“That was not ideal.”
May you like
“I know.”
He rubbed his forehead.
