Chapter 9 - Beverly and EdmundMonica did not want to know.
That surprised her.
For days she had demanded every truth.
Now the possibility that Beverly and Price had been lovers made her want to close the laptop.
Jasper was safe.
The land was frozen legally.
Police had Beverly.
Why keep digging?
Then she remembered Richard’s words.
Cowardice disguised as protecting the family.
Monica opened the photograph again.
Ward traced its source.
It had been taken at a private investment dinner seven years earlier.
Other images from the event existed.
In several, Beverly and Price sat close.
One showed them leaving together.
Evidence of an affair?
Not necessarily.
Then investigators obtained old hotel records through Price’s financial files.
Same hotel.
Same nights.
Repeatedly.
Beverly eventually admitted the relationship.
Her attorney framed it as irrelevant.
Monica disagreed.
Not morally.
Financially.
Price had begun advising Beverly during the affair.
She trusted him.
Invested with him.
Transferred marital assets through him.
If he exploited the relationship, it explained how the financial secrecy began.
When Ward told Beverly that Price was cooperating against her, Beverly laughed.
“He’ll say anything.”
“So will you?”
Beverly stared.
Ward asked:
“Did you love him?”
Beverly looked toward the camera.
“No.”
“Did Richard know?”
Silence.
“Beverly?”
“Yes.”
Monica heard the recording later.
That single answer wounded her.
Richard knew.
Again.
He knew about the affair.
The missing money.
Price.
And remained married.
Why?
Aaron answered reluctantly.
“Your father loved her.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“No.”
“He stayed because of me?”
“Partly.”
Monica’s anger rose.
“I was thirty.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Aaron sat back.
“Richard believed keeping the family intact proved strength.”
Monica laughed bitterly.
“How did that work?”
Aaron had no answer.
Richard confronted Beverly about Price eight years earlier.
She promised the affair was over.
Richard believed her.
Or wanted to.
The investment relationship continued secretly.
Richard discovered that later.
That was when he changed the trust.
Not simply because money disappeared.
Because he no longer trusted Beverly with property.
The estate plan was a marital boundary disguised as financial planning.
Monica understood why Beverly hated it.
Every restriction was Richard telling her:
I know what you did.
After his death, Beverly was left living inside the physical proof that her husband had stopped trusting her.
The mansion was hers to occupy.
Never hers to control.
That humiliation metastasized.
Monica almost pitied her.
Then Jasper woke screaming again.
Pity disappeared.
One afternoon he asked to visit the garden.
Monica was surprised.
“Are you sure?”
“I want my baseball.”
“Your baseball?”
“Grandpa’s baseball.”
Richard had given Jasper a signed Yankees ball.
Jasper kept it in a box in his room.
Monica arranged a brief visit with his therapist’s approval.
Police activity had ended inside the house.
Beverly was legally prohibited from approaching.
Jasper walked through the mansion holding Monica’s hand.
His bedroom was untouched.
He found the baseball.
Then stopped near the window.
The garden was visible below.
He froze.
Monica waited.
“Want to go?”
Jasper nodded.
They left.
No forced exposure.
No speech about bravery.
Back at the rental, Jasper placed the baseball beside his bed.
“That’s enough.”
Monica smiled.
“Yes.”
Meanwhile Price’s cooperation produced the financial blueprint.
Beverly owed him $1.7 million.
Price wanted eastern acreage.
Broadmere would buy Phase One cheaply.
Once access was secured, Price-controlled investors intended to acquire options around the surrounding land.
Projected profit:
Over $15 million.
Beverly’s share after debt repayment could approach $3 million.
She would restore her wealth.
Price would control the development.
Everyone benefited.
Except Monica.
Jasper.
And Richard’s trust.
Ward asked Price whether he knew Beverly intended to confine Jasper.
“No.”
“Did you tell her to silence him?”
“I told her to control the situation.”
“What does that mean?”
“Keep him away from documents.”
“Did you know she had physically disciplined him before?”
Price hesitated.
That hesitation mattered.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She mentioned locking him outside.”
Ward stared.
“And you continued telling her to control him.”
“I never told her to hurt him.”
The familiar defense.
Maybe legally important.
Morally empty.
Then Price gave investigators a message Beverly sent two hours before Jasper disappeared.
He heard the call.
Price replied:
Then fix it before Monica gets home.
Beverly:
I will.
Price:
No mistakes this time.
Monica read the exchange.
“No mistakes this time?”
Ward nodded.
“We asked.”
“And?”
“Price claims previous ‘mistakes’ were failed attempts to intercept documents.”
Monica did not believe him completely.
Neither did Ward.
Then forensic analysis of Beverly’s phone recovered a deleted photograph from one month earlier.
Jasper’s bicycle helmet.
Placed beside the garden gate.
Beverly had texted the image to Price.
If I ever need Monica to think he left, this will help.
Monica stopped breathing.
The story about Jasper riding away had not been improvised.
Beverly had rehearsed the idea weeks earlier.
The confinement may have been impulsive.
May you like
The cover story was not.
And that changed everything.
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