“He wrote that because he hated me.”
“No, Daniel.”
“He always thought I was a failure.”
Margaret walked toward him.
“He wrote it because he understood what might happen.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“And now you’re going to take everything away.”
“I am not taking anything from you.”
“You’ll cut me out.”
“You cut yourself out.”
The words left him silent.
Thomas folded the document.
Detective Cole, who had remained behind, approached.
“We’ll need copies of those papers.”
Thomas nodded.
Margaret looked again at the amendment.
“What exactly is the Hale Family Legacy Trust?”
Thomas’s expression changed.
Margaret noticed immediately.
“Thomas?”
He did not answer at first.
“Richard created it years ago.”
“For what?”
“Education.
Charitable grants.
Certain forms of family support.”
“Who controls it?”
Thomas looked down at the brown envelope.
“There is another document.”
Margaret frowned.
“What document?”
Thomas reached inside.
At the bottom was a smaller cream-colored envelope.
Margaret had never seen it.
Across the front, in Richard’s unmistakable handwriting, were four words.
FOR MARGARET.
AFTER DANIEL.
Her throat tightened.
Thomas held it out.
“This belongs to you.”
Margaret accepted it with shaking fingers.
Richard had been dead for four years.
Still, she would have known that handwriting anywhere.
She opened the envelope.
Inside was one sheet.
My Maggie,
If you’re reading this, then what I feared has happened.
Margaret stopped.
She could not continue.
Thomas touched her shoulder.
She forced herself to read.
Daniel was never the greatest danger to you.
Margaret frowned.
Her eyes moved lower.
The greatest danger is that you will forgive him before you learn the whole truth.
At the bottom was one last instruction.
Ask Thomas about the April account.
Margaret lifted her head.
Thomas had turned pale.
“What is the April account?”
He said nothing.
“Thomas?”
Daniel looked at his uncle.
“What did Dad mean?”
Thomas slowly lowered himself into a chair.
And Margaret understood that her brother had been keeping a secret too.
