Chapter 4 - Adrienne’s Resentment“What have I ever asked you to clean up?”
Kelsey’s voice was shaking.
Adrienne looked at her.
“This entire house changed because of you.”
Travis frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Adrienne turned toward her brother.
“You used to listen to me.”
“I was twenty-five.”
“You used to care what I thought.”
“I still do.”
“No.”
Her voice hardened.
“You married her and suddenly everything I said became interference.”
Kelsey stared.
“That’s why you let my baby fall?”
“I did not let him fall!”
“You watched.”
“I thought he would stop.”
“He is one year old.”
Adrienne looked away.
Travis stood between them.
“Why did you delete the footage?”
Adrienne froze.
Kelsey’s pulse accelerated.
Travis continued:
“You knew what it showed.”
“I panicked.”
“So you did delete it.”
Adrienne closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Kelsey whispered:
“My God.”
“I knew you would twist it.”
“You didn’t help him.”
“I helped eventually!”
Travis looked disgusted.
“After calling someone you knew wasn’t home.”
Adrienne began crying again.
“I made a mistake.”
Kelsey stepped forward.
“No. A mistake is looking away for one second.”
She pointed toward the laptop.
“You looked at him twice.”
Adrienne’s face hardened.
“You think you’re a perfect mother?”
“No.”
“Then stop acting like one.”
Travis interrupted.
“This is not about Kelsey.”
Adrienne turned.
“It always is.”
He stared.
“What?”
She laughed bitterly.
“You really don’t see it.”
“See what?”
“Dad left you everything.”
Silence.
Travis frowned.
“What does Dad have to do with this?”
Kelsey looked between them.
Their father, Walter Bennett, had died eighteen months earlier.
Travis inherited the mansion.
Adrienne received investment assets and cash.
At least that was what Kelsey had always been told.
Adrienne continued:
“This house.”
She gestured around them.
“The company voting shares.”
“The property portfolio.”
“Everything that mattered.”
Travis’s voice dropped.
“You received six million dollars.”
“Money.”
“Yes. Money.”
“You got legacy.”
Kelsey suddenly understood.
“This is about inheritance.”
Adrienne looked at her.
“You would love that, wouldn’t you?”
“What?”
“To reduce everything to greed.”
Travis stared.
“Adrienne, Dad made his choices.”
“Dad made those choices after she entered the family.”
Kelsey went still.
“What are you implying?”
Adrienne stepped closer.
“Before Kelsey, Dad always said the house would remain shared.”
Travis frowned.
“No. He said family could use it.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
“He changed the estate plan after Milo was born.”
Kelsey looked at Travis.
“Did he?”
Travis hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it didn’t affect us much.”
Adrienne laughed.
“Not you.”
Travis’s face tightened.
“What changed?”
Adrienne stared at him.
“You really never read it?”
“Read what?”
“The second amendment.”
Travis stopped.
Their father’s estate lawyer had handled everything.
Travis had received summaries.
Not every supporting document.
Adrienne walked toward her room.
Travis blocked her.
“Where are you going?”
“To get it.”
Five minutes later, she returned carrying a folder.
On the front:
WALTER BENNETT REVOCABLE TRUST — SECOND AMENDMENT
Travis stared.
“How do you have this?”
“Dad gave me a copy.”
“When?”
“Before he died.”
Kelsey’s stomach tightened.
Adrienne opened the document.
The amendment changed more than property.
It created a trust for Milo.
Funded with twenty percent of Walter’s remaining company interest.
Current estimated value:
nearly eighteen million dollars.
Kelsey stared.
“Milo has a trust?”
Travis looked equally shocked.
Adrienne laughed bitterly.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
“Of course you didn’t.”
Travis read quickly.
Trustee:
Travis Bennett.
Successor trustee:
Independent fiduciary.
Beneficiary:
Milo Bennett.
No Adrienne.
Kelsey looked at her sister-in-law.
“You knew Milo inherited eighteen million dollars.”
Adrienne’s eyes flashed.
“It wasn’t eighteen then.”
“That’s what this is about.”
“No.”
But the denial came too quickly.
Travis looked at his sister.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Dad asked me not to.”
“That makes no sense.”
“He wanted to see whether you would ever actually read what he left.”
Travis’s face hardened.
“Dad never played games like that.”
Adrienne said nothing.
Kelsey looked at the document.
Then noticed a handwritten notation in the margin.
Initials.
A.B. acknowledged receipt.
Adrienne Bennett.
And beneath it:
Additional letter delivered separately.
Kelsey looked up.
“What letter?”
Adrienne went pale.
Travis saw it.
“What letter?”
“I don’t know.”
“You acknowledged it.”
“No.”
“Your initials are here.”
Adrienne snatched at the folder.
Travis pulled it away.
“Where is Dad’s letter?”
May you like
Adrienne’s silence answered.
And suddenly the missing security footage was no longer the only thing she had tried to hide.
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