Chapter 6 - Audrey’s Missing FolderColin did not sleep.
At 2:13 a.m., he entered his study.
The room looked exactly as it always had.
Mahogany shelves.
Dark leather chairs.
Audrey’s photograph beside the window.
A room designed to communicate order.
Colin now saw evidence of his own carelessness everywhere.
Unlocked drawers.
Shared passwords.
Documents he assumed nobody would touch because everyone around him was trusted.
Mercedes appeared at the doorway.
“I made coffee.”
“Thank you.”
She set the mug down.
Colin opened the cabinet containing Audrey’s estate records.
Three binders.
Tax returns.
Trust statements.
Closing documents.
Nothing labeled amendment.
Mercedes looked at Audrey’s photograph.
“She loved this room?”
“No.”
Colin almost smiled.
“She hated it.”
Mercedes raised an eyebrow.
“She said it looked like a bank that had lost its imagination.”
The smile disappeared as quickly as it came.
Colin sat.
“She wanted the sunroom painted yellow.”
“It still is.”
“Because I never had the courage to change it.”
Mercedes looked toward the adjoining doorway.
“Maybe that’s why Sienna spends time there.”
Colin said nothing.
He opened another drawer.
Inside was a small stack of old correspondence.
One envelope carried Audrey’s handwriting.
Colin — Personal
His pulse changed.
He opened it.
The letter was dated six weeks before Audrey’s final hospitalization.
Colin—
If you’re reading this because I chickened out and never gave it to you, forgive me.
I’m not worried about the money.
I’m worried about what grief will make you do.
You hide inside work when life hurts.
Please don’t disappear from Sienna while telling yourself you’re providing for her.
She needs your time more than anything I’m leaving behind.
Colin stopped reading.
He covered his mouth.
Mercedes quietly turned away.
After several seconds, Colin continued.
I asked Halpern & Lowe to prepare one additional amendment to Sienna’s trust. It is not dramatic. It simply adds an independent co-trustee once she turns ten and restricts any sale of the lake property until she is eighteen unless a court finds it necessary for her benefit.
I know you think this is excessive.
I know you hate outsiders interfering.
Do it for me.
The lake house is the one place that belongs entirely to her memories of our family.
Don’t let anyone talk you into treating it like an asset on a spreadsheet.
Love,
Audrey
Colin stared at the page.
His blood ran cold.
The lake property.
Elliot had mentioned it.
Valerie had mentioned it.
He grabbed his phone.
The law firm Audrey named had merged years earlier.
He searched his contacts.
His current estate attorney had inherited some of the old files.
Colin sent an urgent message.
Then another thought struck.
The independent co-trustee provision was not yet active.
Sienna was eight.
But the sale restriction on the lake property could already matter.
If the amendment had been executed.
“Why didn’t I know?” Colin whispered.
Mercedes looked at him.
“Maybe Mrs. Audrey didn’t have time to tell you.”
“I was there.”
“Being there is not the same as knowing everything someone was trying to protect.”
He looked at the letter again.
At 6:40 a.m., his attorney called.
“Colin, I found the index from the old Halpern files.”
“And?”
“There was an amendment drafted.”
“Executed?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Find out.”
“I’m requesting archived records.”
Colin stood.
“Also check the lake house.”
A pause.
“What about it?”
“Whether anyone has tried to sell it.”
“Why would anyone—”
“Check.”
An hour later, the answer came.
The property had been quietly listed through a private brokerage ten days earlier.
The listing was not public.
The paperwork showed Colin’s authorization.
He had never authorized it.
The asking price was $4.8 million.
Colin stared at the email.
His attorney continued.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“The broker says the instruction came through Elliot.”
Colin’s grip tightened around the phone.
“And the amendment?”
“Still searching.”
Colin looked toward Audrey’s photograph.
Valerie had not only been stealing money.
She had been preparing to sell the one property Audrey had specifically tried to protect for Sienna.
The place where Sienna had learned to swim.
Where Audrey had painted her bedroom walls herself.
Where every summer photograph on Colin’s phone had been taken.
Mercedes stood in the doorway.
“What is it?”
Colin turned the laptop toward her.
She read the listing.
Her face tightened.
Then she looked at him.
“I saw Mrs. Valerie packing boxes from the lake house last month.”
Colin froze.
“What boxes?”
“Papers.”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Mercedes hesitated.
“But one of them had Mrs. Audrey’s name written on the side.”
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