Chapter 5 - Scout
Emily did not go alone.
She brought Rebecca.
And a police officer.
Diane opened the front door with fury in her eyes.
“This is harassment.”
Officer Mendoza remained calm.
“Ma’am, we’re here to keep the peace. Ownership of the dog may be a civil issue.”
Emily stepped inside.
“Scout!”
Nothing.
Her stomach dropped.
“Where is he?”
Diane crossed her arms.
“In the mudroom.”
Emily rushed there.
Scout lay on his bed behind a closed baby gate.
The old dog stood slowly when he saw her.
His tail began beating against the cabinet.
Emily dropped to her knees.
“You’re okay.”
Scout pressed his head into her chest.
Diane said from behind her, “Thomas bought him during our marriage.”
Emily turned.
“So?”
“So marital property doesn’t magically become yours because you’re sentimental.”
Rebecca said, “Thomas’s veterinarian records list Emily as alternate owner.”
Diane stared.
Rebecca continued.
“And Thomas’s estate memorandum leaves Scout to Emily.”
“That memorandum isn’t a will.”
“No, but you just claimed the estate inventory controls. The inventory you filed identifies Scout as specifically distributed personal property.”
Diane looked at Mercer, who had arrived minutes earlier.
He lowered his eyes.
Emily understood.
Even Diane’s own probate documents contradicted her.
Diane stepped aside.
“Take the dog.”
Emily attached Scout’s leash.
Then she looked at the dining room.
Her discarded dinner had been removed.
The metal bowl washed clean.
As if nothing happened.
That was Diane’s talent.
Create damage.
Then clean the surface.
Before Emily left, Mercer asked to speak privately with Rebecca and Emily.
He looked exhausted.
“I confronted Lydia.”
Rebecca folded her arms.
“And?”
“She resigned this morning.”
“Convenient.”
“She also deleted her firm email.”
“More convenient.”
Mercer handed over printed server logs.
“I restored what I could.”
Lydia Ames had accessed Thomas’s probate files dozens of times without assigned tasks.
She downloaded the power-of-attorney documents.
The residence trust.
Draft deeds.
And correspondence from Rebecca.
“She intercepted the revocation,” Mercer said.
“Did she create the hospital deed?” Emily asked.
“I prepared a deed after receiving an email appearing to come from Thomas.”
Rebecca said, “Appearing?”
Mercer nodded.
“It came from his personal address.”
Emily remembered her father barely using email during his final hospital stay.
“Did you speak to him?”
Mercer’s face tightened.
“Not about the deed.”
Emily stared.
“You transferred a multimillion-dollar house based on an email?”
“I drafted a document based on instructions I believed were genuine. I was told Thomas would execute it with a mobile notary.”
“You didn’t attend?”
“No.”
“And then you filed it?”
“After receiving the notarized original.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“My dad told me not to trust what people said about him. Apparently I shouldn’t trust what lawyers say he signed either.”
Mercer accepted the blow.
“I failed.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
No excuse.
That mattered.
The hospital deed’s notary, Caroline Pike, became the next target.
Rebecca found her license.
Active.
Address in Norwalk.
By afternoon Caroline agreed to speak.
She remembered Diane.
Remembered the hospital.
Remembered Thomas.
But when Rebecca placed the deed in front of her, Caroline frowned.
“I didn’t notarize this.”
Mercer went still.
“Your seal is on it.”
“My old seal.”
“What?”
Caroline explained that her notary stamp had been stolen from her car nine months earlier.
She reported it to police and the Secretary of State.
Rebecca immediately requested the report.
Emily felt the story narrowing.
Someone had used a stolen notary stamp.
A compromised paralegal.
A forged or copied signature.
And Mercer’s office to file the deed.
Grant and Diane needed the house pulled back into the estate.
Why?
Because Thomas’s residence trust gave Emily something Diane had never told her.
Rebecca showed her that evening.
Diane had a twelve-month right to occupy the home after Thomas’s death.
Then possession transferred entirely to Emily.
Thomas had been dead five months.
Diane had seven months left.
“This was never her house permanently,” Emily whispered.
“No.”
“Dad gave her a year.”
“Yes.”
“And then me.”
Rebecca nodded.
Emily looked toward Scout sleeping beside the hotel bed.
Diane’s words returned.
Nobody here owes you a seat.
In reality, Diane was the temporary occupant.
Emily was the beneficiary.
But Rebecca was not finished.
“The trust account in your envelope is separate.”
“How much?”
“Approximately six-point-two million dollars.”
Emily stared.
“When do I get it?”
“Distributions for education and support now. Broader control at twenty-five.”
Emily exhaled.
“So Grant can’t make me sign it away tonight.”
“Not directly.”
“Then what was the settlement agreement?”
Rebecca’s expression darkened.
“A consent to terminate the trust early.”
Emily stared.
“If I signed?”
“You would have authorized liquidation, settlement of Grant’s company claim, transfer of the house to Diane, and distribution of the remaining cash.”
“To whom?”
Rebecca turned the page.
“Forty percent to you.”
Emily felt cold.
“And the rest?”
Rebecca looked at her.
“Thirty percent to Diane.”
“And thirty?”
Rebecca’s eyes hardened.
“To Grant’s company.”
May you like
They had been trying to divide her father’s estate between themselves.
And call whatever remained a gift to her.
