Chapter 6 - Loretta’s LawsuitThe lawsuit had not yet been filed.
Loretta’s attorneys had been preparing it privately.
Miriam obtained a copy through counsel after Kiara confronted the issue.
The draft petition claimed Everett lacked capacity when he amended his estate plan five years earlier.
If successful, the amendment protecting the collection and Briarwood mansion could be challenged.
An older estate plan was more favorable to Loretta.
Kiara read the draft twice.
“She wants the house.”
“She wants significantly more control and ownership than she currently has,” Miriam said.
“What did the old plan say?”
“Before Everett revised it, Loretta would have received Briarwood outright and a larger portion of his personal property.”
“Why did he change it?”
Miriam looked uncomfortable.
“You need to ask me a different question.”
Kiara stared.
“What happened between my parents?”
Miriam folded her hands.
“Your father discovered unexplained withdrawals.”
“How much?”
“Approximately six hundred thousand dollars over several years.”
Kiara went silent.
“Mom stole from him?”
“He believed she had used marital funds without disclosure.”
“For what?”
“Bad investments. Loans to friends. Some personal spending.”
“Did he confront her?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Six years before he died.”
“And?”
“They remained married.”
Kiara stared toward the window.
Thirty-six years together.
Anniversary dinners.
Photographs.
Public affection.
Private resentment.
“Why didn’t they divorce?”
“I’m not qualified to answer that.”
“What did Dad do?”
“He changed his estate plan.”
The explanation was suddenly obvious.
Everett did not leave Loretta destitute.
He created a lifetime income stream.
Allowed her continued residence at Briarwood under conditions.
But he placed the mansion and collection in trust.
Kiara became primary family trustee.
Malik became remainder beneficiary.
Loretta lost the power to sell.
Miriam continued:
“He wanted you protected from becoming responsible for her financial decisions.”
Kiara almost laughed.
Instead, she had spent four years inviting Loretta into the mansion because she thought her mother had been unfairly sidelined by complicated estate planning.
“I defended her.”
Miriam looked sympathetic.
“You didn’t know everything.”
“Dad should have told me.”
“He wanted to protect your relationship with her.”
Kiara stared.
“And look how well that worked.”
Everett had hidden ugly truths to preserve peace.
After his death, Loretta filled the silence with her own version.
Your father became controlling.
Your father didn’t trust me.
Your father let lawyers turn him against me.
Kiara believed enough of it to become angry at a dead man.
Now she understood.
The trust was not punishment.
It was a guardrail.
Loretta had spent years trying to get around it.
When legal challenges became expensive, she began liquidating assets she believed should have been hers anyway.
The theft funded the attack.
A circular betrayal.
Malik wandered into the kitchen.
Kiara immediately closed the legal file.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You look mad.”
“I am.”
“At Grandma?”
“Yes.”
Malik climbed onto a stool.
“Can people be your family and still do bad things?”
Kiara looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Can they stop being family?”
The question hurt.
“They don’t stop being related to you.”
“But?”
“You can decide whether they get to be part of your life.”
Malik considered that.
“Like Grandma?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
Then asked:
“Did Grandpa know she was mean?”
Kiara had no answer.
“I don’t know.”
Malik opened the refrigerator.
“Can I have juice?”
“Yes.”
He poured too much.
A little spilled onto the counter.
He froze.
Kiara saw it.
Then Malik looked at her.
Kiara simply handed him a towel.
He cleaned it.
No apology this time.
Progress.
That afternoon, a handwriting examiner gave investigators a preliminary opinion.
The Everett letter authorizing Loretta to dispose of the collection was almost certainly fabricated.
The signature appeared copied from an older document.
The paper itself was manufactured two years after Everett died.
Loretta’s legal challenge now had another problem.
She had apparently created evidence to support her claim that Everett wanted her to control the art.
Then Detective Bell delivered a deeper blow.
The forged letter had been printed on a machine located inside the mansion.
Kiara’s home-office printer.
Timestamp:
Three months earlier.
A security log showed Loretta entering Kiara’s office at 1:06 a.m.
And leaving thirty-seven minutes later.
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Malik had not been the only person Loretta was trying to make believe a false story.
She had been rewriting Everett’s intentions on paper.
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