Chapter 3 - MY MOTHER'S LAWYER
Kareen entered the hospital room as though she owned it.
She wore the same clothes she'd been wearing when I found her attacking Alora.
There was still blood on her sleeve.
My wife's blood.
Two men followed her.
One carried a briefcase.
The other held a folder.
I stepped in front of Alora's bed.
“Get out.”
Kareen smiled.
“I'm here for my grandchild.”
“You don't get to call that baby your grandchild after what you did.”
Her expression hardened.
“Be careful.”
“No.”
I pointed toward the hallway.
“Leave.”
One of the lawyers stepped forward.
“Mr. Vale, perhaps you should understand that Mrs. Kareen Vale has certain legal rights concerning—”
I interrupted him.
“She has no rights.”
The lawyer smiled.
“We'll see about that.”
Mara stepped into the room.
“Actually, we won't.”
She held up her phone.
“I recorded everything.”
Kareen's face went pale.
Mara continued.
“The attack. The threats. The safe. Everything.”
“You wouldn't dare.”
“I already did.”
I looked at Mara.
She had become someone I barely recognized.
My little sister had always been quiet.
Always afraid of our mother.
Not tonight.
Kareen's lawyer opened his briefcase.
“Regardless, Mrs. Vale has filed an emergency petition regarding the estate.”
“What estate?”
“Your father's trust.”
I laughed bitterly.
“My father died six years ago.”
“The trust was never fully distributed.”
“Why?”
The lawyer glanced at Kareen.
“Because certain conditions were unresolved.”
“Which conditions?”
He opened the folder.
“Your identity.”
Silence.
Alora sat upright.
“What does that mean?”
The lawyer looked at me.
“It means that the trust's principal beneficiary is not necessarily the person named on the current birth certificate.”
My heart hammered.
“What are you saying?”
Kareen finally spoke.
“You are not my son.”
The words landed like a bullet.
Mara began crying.
I looked at my mother.
She didn't look away.
“You lied to me for thirty years.”
“I raised you.”
“You lied.”
“I loved you.”
“You beat my wife.”
“She knows what she did!”
Alora flinched.
I turned toward her.
“What did she do?”
Kareen smiled.
“Ask her.”
I looked at Alora.
She was crying.
“Tell me.”
She swallowed.
“The night your father died…”
She stopped.
“Tell me.”
“I was there.”
My blood froze.
“You were there?”
“I was eighteen.”
“You knew my father?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
She looked at the floor.
“Because my father worked for yours.”
The room went silent.
“My father discovered that Kareen had been moving money from your father's company.”
I stared at her.
“And?”
“He threatened to expose her.”
Kareen's lawyer suddenly closed the folder.
“This conversation is irrelevant.”
“No,” I said.
“It is everything.”
Alora continued.
“Your father planned to leave your mother.”
Kareen's face twisted.
“He was going to take you with him.”
My chest tightened.
“So what happened?”
Alora whispered:
“Kareen found out.”
I looked at my mother.
“You killed him.”
She laughed.
“No.”
But her eyes betrayed her.
“I didn't kill him.”
“Then who did?”
She stared directly at Alora.
“Her father.”
Alora gasped.
“No.”
Kareen smiled.
“He drove the car.”
I looked at Alora.
She was shaking.
“My father didn't know who was inside.”
Kareen's expression became almost triumphant.
“He knew.”
“No,” Alora whispered.
“He knew exactly who he was hitting.”
The room erupted in chaos.
Alora began sobbing.
I stood completely still.
Everything I had believed about my childhood had collapsed.
Then the lawyer said:
“There is one more matter.”
I turned.
“What?”
He placed another document on the bed.
“Your father's trust contains a provision.”
“What provision?”
“If Thane Vale is proven not to be Kareen Vale's biological son, control of the trust transfers to…”
He stopped.
“To whom?”
He looked at Alora.
“To your unborn child.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Kareen smiled.
And I realized why she had attacked my pregnant wife.
May you like
She wasn't trying to steal my money.
She was trying to eliminate the one person who could inherit everything.
