Chapter 2 - THE COURT FILE SAID REBECCA HAD ABANDONED HER SONRebecca took the first flight she could get.
It left Dallas at 11:35 p.m.
She spent the entire wait inside the airport reading documents Rachel sent to her phone.
The more she read, the less the filing looked like something Tabitha had invented in one afternoon.
It had been built.
Prepared.
Layer by layer.
There were photographs of Rebecca leaving airports.
Records of business trips.
Copies of calendar entries showing work dinners.
A statement from Tabitha claiming Lucas “frequently expressed sadness and fear” whenever Rebecca traveled.
Another statement claimed Lucas had asked whether he could “live permanently at his father’s home.”
Rebecca stared at that sentence.
Lucas had never said that.
He loved the mansion because Ethan’s music room was there.
Because his father’s old guitar remained upstairs.
Because a box of model cars still sat in the den.
That did not mean he wanted to leave his mother.
Then Rebecca found the document that made her hands shake.
TEMPORARY CAREGIVER CONSENT.
Her name.
Her address.
Lucas’s name.
A signature nearly identical to hers.
Dated six weeks earlier.
The document supposedly gave Tabitha authority to make medical and educational decisions whenever Rebecca traveled.
Rebecca called Rachel from the airport gate.
“That signature is fake.”
“I believe you.”
“Can the court stop this?”
“Yes, but we need to move quickly.”
“How quickly?”
“Emergency filings can produce temporary orders before full hearings if the judge believes a child is at risk.”
“Lucas is at risk from the woman asking for custody.”
“Which is why Alma’s video matters.”
Rebecca looked around the crowded terminal.
“Has anyone shown Tabitha we have it?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Do not call her.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not warn Caleb either.”
Rebecca stopped.
“You think he’s involved?”
“I know he prepared the petition.”
“That doesn’t prove he knows the signature is forged.”
“No.”
Rachel was careful.
Rebecca appreciated that.
“But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Caleb notarized the caregiver consent.”
Rebecca felt cold.
“He claims I signed it in front of him?”
“Yes.”
“I haven’t seen Caleb in almost four months.”
“Then either someone impersonated you, or Caleb knowingly certified a false signature.”
Rebecca stared at the boarding gate.
“Why?”
“That’s the question.”
Rachel had another.
“Why did you allow Lucas to stay with Tabitha this week?”
Rebecca’s chest tightened.
“Because she asked.”
“More specifically.”
“She said Lucas was struggling.”
“With?”
“Ethan’s death.”
“And?”
“She told me Ethan’s birthday was coming up and Lucas might want to spend a few days in his old house.”
Rachel went silent.
“What?”
“Ethan’s birthday isn’t this week.”
Rebecca frowned.
“Yes, it is.”
“No.”
“Rachel.”
“I have his probate records open.”
Rebecca felt a chill.
“His birthday was October seventeenth.”
She looked at the date.
September.
A month early.
Rebecca whispered:
“She lied.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca thought backward.
Tabitha called fourteen days earlier.
Warm voice.
Gentle.
She talked about Lucas missing Ethan.
She offered to arrange his favorite meals.
Said Alma would be there.
Rebecca already had the Dallas conference scheduled.
The timing seemed almost convenient.
Too convenient.
“Rachel.”
“Yes?”
“How would Tabitha know about my Dallas trip before I told her?”
“Did you tell anyone else?”
“My office.”
“Public event?”
Rebecca thought.
The conference was private.
Invite-only.
Her company had sent two executives.
Her assistant booked travel.
“I posted nothing.”
Rachel’s voice became sharper.
“Then find out who knew.”
Rebecca sent a message to her assistant, Morgan.
Who knew about Dallas before I told Tabitha?
The reply came eight minutes later.
You, me, Mr. Sloan, and the client team. Why?
Mr. Sloan.
Rebecca’s managing partner.
Nothing obvious.
Still, she saved it.
The plane boarded.
Before switching to airplane mode, Rebecca called Alma.
She answered in a whisper.
“Ms. Rebecca.”
“Where’s Lucas?”
“With me.”
“Where?”
“My room.”
“Door locked?”
“Yes.”
“Is Tabitha nearby?”
“She went to her study.”
“Does she know you recorded?”
“I don’t think so.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Thank you.”
Alma’s voice broke.
“I should have called sooner.”
“We deal with that later.”
A pause.
“How long has this been happening?”
Alma began crying quietly.
“I don’t know.”
“Alma.”
“I saw her become harsh after Mr. Ethan died.”
“How harsh?”
“Words.”
“Punishments.”
“She would send Lucas to his room.”
“Take away toys.”
“I didn’t see this.”
“Until tonight?”
“Not like this.”
Rebecca swallowed her anger.
“Did Lucas ever tell you?”
“Once he said Mrs. Mercer didn’t like when he talked about his father.”
Rebecca’s jaw tightened.
“Anything else?”
Alma hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“He asked me last week what custody means.”
Rebecca froze.
“Why?”
“He said Tabitha kept using the word on the phone.”
“With who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he hear a name?”
Alma thought.
“He said Mr. Caleb.”
Rebecca’s stomach dropped.
Caleb Shore.
Then Alma said:
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“After I locked Lucas in my room, I went back for his medicine.”
“And?”
“Tabitha was on the phone.”
“What did she say?”
Alma lowered her voice.
“‘Rebecca is still in Dallas. We only need the morning order.’”
Rebecca’s fingers tightened around her boarding pass.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
“She said…”
Alma paused.
“She said, ‘Once I’m guardian, the trustee has to talk to me.’”
Rebecca stopped breathing.
Trustee.
This wasn’t only about custody.
It was about Lucas’s inheritance.
Ethan’s estate had placed almost everything Lucas inherited into a trust.
Rebecca knew the amount was significant.
She did not control it.
Neither did Tabitha.
An independent trustee did.
But a legal guardian could communicate with the trustee on behalf of a minor.
Rebecca whispered:
“This is about money.”
Alma answered:
“I think it’s bigger than that.”
“Why?”
“Because Mr. Ethan used to fight with Tabitha about a blue ledger.”
Rebecca frowned.
“What blue ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
“I thought he destroyed it.”
Then Alma said something Rebecca had never heard before.
“Two days before he died, Mr. Ethan told me if Tabitha ever tried to get Lucas away from you…”
Rebecca felt her pulse quicken.
“What?”
“…I was supposed to open the locked drawer in his music room.”
The boarding agent called Rebecca’s group.
She stood.
“What’s in the drawer?”
Alma whispered:
“I never opened it.”
“Do not open it alone.”
“Why?”
“Because if Tabitha planned tonight for weeks, I don’t know what else she’s watching.”
Rebecca walked onto the plane.
May you like
For the first time since Ethan’s death, she wondered whether his final months had contained secrets none of them understood.
And whether Tabitha’s plan to take Lucas had actually begun before Ethan died.
Related Stories
