Chapter 13 - Grant Had Been Recording Loretta TooParker gave investigators the server address.
Grant kept private archives.
Not because he was careful with evidence.
Because he trusted no accomplice.
Every major relationship came with insurance.
Emails.
Recorded calls.
Scans.
Video.
Grant had saved home-security clips from the Mercer mansion.
Loretta did not know.
Vincent watched only the clips investigators believed relevant.
The first came from four months earlier.
Kitchen.
Loretta sat with Griffin.
Rory slept in a nearby bassinet.
Loretta:
“Your dad works a lot.”
Griffin:
“I know.”
“Does that make you sad?”
“Sometimes.”
“If someone asked whether you’d rather live with somebody who’s home more, what would you say?”
Griffin frowned.
“I want to live here.”
“With me?”
“With Dad.”
Loretta’s smile disappeared.
“Your dad might not always be able to take care of everything.”
Griffin:
“He takes care of us.”
“Because I help.”
“So?”
Loretta:
“So maybe you should appreciate me more.”
Griffin shrugged.
“I do.”
She seemed dissatisfied.
The next clip was worse.
Rory refused a bottle.
Loretta became angry.
She did not hit him.
But she pushed the bottle toward his mouth repeatedly until he cried.
Then she stopped.
Took a photograph.
Typed something into her phone.
Evidence creation.
The third clip showed Loretta alone with Grant in Vincent’s study.
Grant:
“You’re being sloppy.”
Loretta:
“I’m doing what you told me.”
“No. I told you to document his absence.”
“I am.”
“You’re creating problems.”
“He already cries at meals.”
“Then photograph the crying. Don’t cause it.”
Loretta turned toward him.
“You think I’m hurting him?”
Grant said nothing.
Loretta:
“Say it.”
“I think angry people make bad witnesses.”
“Go to hell.”
There.
Grant knew.
Maybe not about the slap captured later.
But enough to understand Loretta’s behavior was escalating.
He did not report it.
He did not stop the guardianship plan.
He simply worried she would become unreliable.
The next part chilled Vincent.
Loretta:
“You said once the will is signed, I control the foundation.”
Grant:
“You chair it.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Legal language.”
“No. Tell me.”
Grant smiled.
“The board controls the foundation.”
“Who’s on the board?”
“Me. Parker. You.”
Loretta froze.
“You said I controlled it.”
“You have one vote.”
“You lied.”
“I simplified.”
Loretta stared.
“So I do all this and you still control the money?”
Grant:
“Nobody controls the money. Governance controls it.”
“Stop talking like a lawyer.”
“I am a lawyer.”
Loretta:
“You’re using me.”
Grant’s expression changed.
“You came to me after stealing from your father.”
“You were already stealing.”
“Can you prove that?”
Loretta went silent.
Grant continued:
“That’s what I thought.”
Vincent leaned back.
Loretta had eventually understood.
The foundation would not make her powerful.
Grant had designed it so she became the visible beneficiary while he controlled the board.
If the scheme succeeded and later collapsed, Loretta’s name was everywhere.
President.
Guarantor.
Beneficiary.
Guardian.
Grant could claim he merely advised.
She was both perpetrator and planned scapegoat.
The video continued.
Loretta:
“I’m done.”
Grant:
“No.”
“I’ll tell Vincent.”
“And say what?”
“The truth.”
Grant laughed.
“Which truth?”
Silence.
“The part where you stole first?”
Loretta looked away.
“The part where you forged your father’s approvals?”
No answer.
“The part where you’ve been building a case to take custody of your brother’s children?”
Loretta:
“That was your idea.”
“The legal structure was mine. Your photographs are yours.”
He had separated liability carefully.
Grant leaned closer.
“You tell Vincent, you lose him.”
Loretta’s eyes filled.
Grant:
“You lose your father.”
Another pause.
“You lose the children.”
Loretta whispered:
“They hate me anyway.”
Grant:
“Then what exactly are you protecting?”
Loretta did not answer.
Vincent stopped the video.
That sentence explained more than Grant intended.
By then, Loretta was no longer protecting relationships.
Only the image that she still had them.
Her father.
Her brother.
Her nephews.
Money had become proof she had not lost everything.
Then Detective Ruiz showed Vincent another clip.
Only two weeks before the kitchen incident.
Loretta stood alone in the nursery.
Rory slept.
She looked at him for a long time.
Then whispered:
“I didn’t used to hate you.”
Vincent’s stomach tightened.
Loretta sat beside the crib.
“You look like her.”
Elena.
Rory had Elena’s eyes.
Loretta continued:
“She always knew exactly how to make me feel small.”
Vincent almost stopped playback.
But Loretta’s next words mattered.
“She was right about the money.”
A long silence.
“I hate that most.”
This was not about Rory.
Not really.
A baby had become a container for Loretta’s resentment toward his dead mother.
Then:
“If she hadn’t found the accounts…”
Loretta stopped.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“This isn’t your fault.”
For one moment, clarity.
Then she left the room.
Vincent sat silently.
His sister had known.
Even in private.
She knew Rory was innocent.
She knew Elena had been right.
She knew Grant was using her.
She knew the money was stolen.
Knowledge had not produced change.
That was difficult to accept.
People imagined wrongdoing required confusion.
Sometimes people understood perfectly and continued because stopping cost too much.
Grant’s server contained one final file.
A draft memo titled:
POST-EXECUTION STRATEGY
Step 1: Everett signs revised will.
Step 2: Loretta assumes foundation leadership.
Step 3: Guardianship petition filed if Vincent objects.
Step 4: Use documented parenting concerns to request temporary restriction of Vincent’s authority over minor beneficiaries.
Step 5: Consolidate estate administration through Bellamy firm.
Step 6: Transfer captive insurance reserves.
Step 7: Reconcile prior property expenses internally.
“Reconcile,” Moore said.
“Meaning?”
“Bury.”
The plan was explicit.
Not to steal once.
To reorganize the estate so previous theft became nearly impossible to untangle.
Then Vincent saw a handwritten note in the margin.
Grant’s handwriting:
If Loretta becomes unstable, remove her after transition.
Vincent stared.
“How?”
Attached was another draft.
A board resolution removing Loretta as foundation president for misconduct.
Grant had planned her fall from the beginning.
May you like
Loretta thought she was disinheriting Griffin and Rory to secure herself.
Grant planned to disinherit everyone.
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