Chapter 4 - What the Trust SaidMara Vaughn arrived at the hospital at seven the next morning.
She was sixty-one, silver-haired, precise, and had represented Grant’s late wife’s family for more than twenty years.
She did not hug Grant.
Mara rarely hugged anyone.
But when she saw Sadie asleep in the hospital bed, she stood silently beside the door for nearly a minute.
Then she turned to Grant.
“Tell me exactly what she said.”
Grant repeated Sadie’s memory.
Mara’s expression changed.
“Who knows the terms of the trust?”
“You. Me. The accounting firm.”
“And Corinne?”
“I never discussed the details with her.”
“Never?”
“I told her Sadie had an inheritance from Dana’s father.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Grant rubbed his face.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Mara motioned toward the corridor.
They stepped outside.
Dana Mercer, Sadie’s biological mother, had died four years earlier after a long battle with ovarian cancer.
Her father, Charles Vaughn, had built a fortune in mountain real estate before selling most of his holdings.
His estate plan had been complicated but deliberate.
Sadie’s trust currently held investment assets worth approximately $12.8 million.
More importantly, it owned twenty-eight percent of Mercer Ridge Holdings.
Grant personally owned thirty-seven percent.
Various family investors and employees controlled the rest.
“The trust prevents those shares from being sold before Sadie turns twenty-five unless both trustees agree the sale is necessary for her welfare,” Mara explained.
“You’re independent co-trustee.”
“Yes.”
Grant frowned.
“I know that.”
“There’s another provision you may have forgotten.”
Mara opened a copy of the trust documents.
“If Sadie dies before twenty-five without descendants, seventy percent of her trust assets pass to you.”
Grant stared at her.
“And thirty percent goes to the Vaughn Foundation.”
“Yes.”
Grant’s face hardened.
“So if Sadie died yesterday, I would inherit almost nine million dollars and her twenty-eight percent of Mercer Ridge.”
“Correct.”
“I’d control sixty-five percent of the company.”
“Yes.”
Grant stared down the hallway toward his daughter’s room.
“Corinne knew.”
“We don’t know that.”
“She knew.”
“Then we need to determine how.”
Mara hesitated.
“There’s more.”
Grant looked at her.
“Two weeks ago, someone called my office asking hypothetical questions about the survivorship clause.”
“Who?”
“My receptionist believed it was Corinne.”
Grant stopped breathing.
“She called you?”
“She claimed she was helping organize your estate records.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because my receptionist did not give her any substantive information. She transferred her to an associate who refused to discuss the trust without authorization.”
“What did Corinne ask?”
Mara looked directly at him.
“She asked whether the shares would become yours immediately if Sadie died.”
Grant’s hands curled into fists.
“That’s motive.”
“It’s troubling.”
“It’s motive.”
“It is not, by itself, proof she tried to kill Sadie.”
Grant paced away.
Mara watched him.
“What’s happening at Mercer Ridge?”
He stopped.
“What do you mean?”
“Business.”
“We’re fine.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Grant looked at her.
Mara continued.
“Three months ago, Reid Calder sent me a proposal asking whether Sadie’s trust would approve selling the Granite Crown property.”
Grant frowned.
Reid was Mercer Ridge Holdings’ chief financial officer.
He had been with the company for eleven years.
“What proposal?”
“You weren’t copied.”
Grant stared.
“Why would Reid contact you without me?”
“He claimed it was preliminary.”
“To sell Granite Crown?”
“To sell the entire western parcel to Northcove Capital.”
Grant’s anger disappeared beneath confusion.
“I rejected Northcove last year.”
“Apparently Reid revived discussions.”
“I never authorized that.”
Mara opened her tablet.
“Then somebody has been negotiating a transaction behind your back.”
Grant took the device.
The proposal was real.
The price was $46 million.
Granite Crown was worth more.
Far more.
And buried in the transaction notes was a sentence that made Grant’s stomach tighten.
Closing contingent upon consolidation of voting control and removal of trust restrictions.
Grant read it twice.
“Removal?”
“The trust blocks the sale,” Mara said. “I would never approve it at this price.”
Grant stared toward Sadie’s room again.
If Sadie died, the trust would terminate.
The shares would transfer.
He would gain voting control.
And Mara would no longer be able to block anything.
Grant whispered, “This isn’t just about inheritance.”
“No.”
“It’s about the company.”
“Possibly.”
His phone rang.
Detective Ortiz.
Grant answered immediately.
“We found the parachute,” she said.
He gripped the phone.
“And?”
“There are indications someone altered the equipment before Sadie wore it.”
Grant closed his eyes.
Ortiz continued.
“We’re treating the cliff incident as a suspected attempted homicide.”
Grant leaned against the wall.
Mara watched his face.
Then Ortiz said something that made the case much larger.
“The equipment tag says it was inspected at Mercer Ridge yesterday morning.”
Grant opened his eyes.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because our gear facility was closed yesterday.”
Ortiz paused.
May you like
Grant looked at Mara.
“Someone inside my company helped her.”
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