Chapter 7 - Corinne Wanted More Than an Empty HouseElise had left the children money.
Not enough to turn them into tabloid heirs.
Enough to matter.
A life-insurance trust.
Investment accounts.
A share of her family's real-estate holdings.
Alistair served as trustee until Willa and Theo reached adulthood.
Corinne had no control over it.
He had never imagined she wanted any.
Now Rachel laid the documents across his mother's dining table.
“Corinne searched removal standards for trustees at least twelve times.”
“Why?”
“There are several possible reasons.”
“Give me the ugliest one first.”
Rachel hesitated.
“If she could establish that you're an unfit or negligent trustee, a court could appoint someone else.”
“Her?”
“Not automatically.”
“Malcolm?”
“Again, not automatically.”
Alistair stared.
“But she could try.”
“She could petition.”
“Based on what?”
Rachel pointed to the placement file.
“Children with serious behavioral needs. Father frequently absent. Funds allegedly needed for specialized care.”
He understood.
The monthly fees.
The transport expenses.
The “clinical” recommendations.
If Stone Ridge became an accepted expense for the children's welfare, money could potentially flow from their trusts.
“How much?”
“Corinne drafted a reimbursement request.”
Alistair went cold.
“How much?”
“One hundred eighty thousand dollars for six months.”
Exactly the facility cost.
“From whose trust?”
“Split between the children.”
He stood.
“She was going to use their inheritance to pay to send them away.”
Rachel nodded.
“Apparently.”
“And Malcolm gets commissions.”
“Yes.”
“Corinne gets what?”
“We're still tracing.”
Alistair looked at the documents.
There had to be something more.
Corinne liked money, but she wasn't poor.
She had her own assets.
Alistair had been generous.
“What was her motive?”
Rachel watched him.
“You may not like this answer.”
“I haven't liked one yet.”
“Control doesn't always need a financial return.”
He knew that.
But something still felt missing.
Then Beatrice spoke from the doorway.
“She wanted Elise gone.”
Alistair turned.
“What?”
Beatrice looked uncomfortable.
“Not literally.”
She sat.
“After you married Corinne, she started changing things.”
“What things?”
“The photographs.”
Alistair remembered.
Some pictures moved from the living room to upstairs.
He had assumed it was natural.
A new marriage shouldn't have his dead wife's face everywhere.
“She asked me to put Elise's things in storage.”
“You did?”
“Some.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you knew.”
He frowned.
Beatrice corrected herself.
“I thought you knew.”
Alistair felt tired.
Everyone thought someone else knew.
“She removed Elise's cookbook from the kitchen.”
“Okay.”
“She replaced Willa's bedroom photo.”
“What?”
“Willa put it back.”
That explained arguments he'd dismissed as decorative disagreements.
Beatrice continued.
“Corinne told Theo not to talk about his mother at dinner.”
Alistair's jaw tightened.
“When?”
“Last year.”
“You heard?”
“Yes.”
“And said nothing.”
Beatrice's eyes filled.
“I told Corinne she shouldn't.”
“That isn't telling me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Beatrice looked ashamed.
“Because I convinced myself it wasn't my place.”
Alistair closed his eyes.
The same disease.
Everyone preserving comfort.
Nobody confronting the person with power.
Beatrice continued:
“Then Corinne started calling the children ungrateful.”
“For what?”
“For not treating her like their mother.”
Alistair looked toward the staircase.
“And then she tells Theo not to call her Mom.”
“Only when she wants to hurt him.”
The answer chilled him.
Affection as reward.
Rejection as punishment.
Rachel closed her folder.
“This helps explain emotional motive. It doesn't explain the trust research.”
Beatrice hesitated.
“There was an argument.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“About?”
“Elise's family.”
Alistair frowned.
Elise's parents lived in Maine.
They saw the children several times a year.
“Corinne wanted them to stop visiting?”
“Not exactly.”
“What?”
“She said the children came back disrespectful.”
Alistair remembered Corinne complaining after spring break.
Theo refused to call her Mom for two weeks.
Willa wanted Elise's photograph back downstairs.
He had thought grief had been stirred up.
Maybe it had.
Beatrice continued.
“I heard Corinne tell Malcolm that as long as Elise's money existed, Elise would never leave the house.”
Alistair went still.
Rachel looked up.
“What exact words?”
Beatrice repeated them.
“As long as that money exists, she never leaves.”
Silence.
The trust wasn't just money to Corinne.
It was Elise.
Another permanent connection.
Something Corinne could not replace.
Alistair's phone rang.
Detective Brennan.
He answered.
“We've recovered deleted messages between Corinne and Malcolm.”
“What do they say?”
“One thread concerns the trust.”
Alistair's chest tightened.
“Read it.”
“I'd rather summarize.”
“Fine.”
Brennan explained.
Malcolm told Corinne that if the children were placed long-term, he could refer them for ongoing services.
Corinne asked whether those costs could come from Elise's trust.
Malcolm said likely, with trustee approval.
Then Corinne wrote:
ALI WILL NEVER APPROVE IT IF HE KNOWS FIRST.
The next message came from Malcolm.
THEN HE DOESN'T KNOW FIRST.
Alistair looked toward Rachel.
There it was.
The entire structure.
Get the children out.
Place them.
Create urgency.
Present Alistair with an accomplished fact.
Convince him withdrawing them would harm them.
Use professionals and paperwork to make resistance look irresponsible.
Then access trust funds to pay for it.
But Brennan had more.
“There's one message that concerns us.”
“What?”
“Corinne asked Malcolm what happens if you refuse after placement.”
Alistair waited.
“And?”
“Malcolm said they would need another lever.”
“What lever?”
Brennan paused.
“He wrote: WE USE THE INCIDENT FILE.”
Alistair frowned.
“What incident file?”
“We don't know yet.”
Then Rachel's expression changed.
She had found something on her laptop.
“Alistair.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
She turned the screen.
A folder had been recovered from Corinne's cloud account.
ALISTAIR INCIDENTS.
Videos.
Audio recordings.
Photographs.
His name attached to dozens of dates.
May you like
Corinne hadn't only been building a case against the children.
She had been building one against him.
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