CHAPTER 5
Her name was Melissa Grant.
I had met her once.
At least, Daniel had made sure I thought I had met her only once.
She had come to his construction office carrying a leather portfolio.
Daniel introduced her as a commercial property consultant.
They spoke for five minutes in the lobby while I waited to take him to lunch.
That was it.
Or so I believed.
Nicole stared at the photograph.
“You know her?”
“I’ve seen her.”
Ava looked between us.
“Who is she?”
Nicole answered carefully.
“She worked with your father years ago.”
“How?”
“Financially.”
That word again.
Everything around Daniel eventually became about money.
Nicole opened one of Laura’s old emails.
“Your mother believed Melissa helped Daniel hide assets during their divorce negotiations.”
Ava looked shocked.
“They were divorcing?”
“Yes.”
“But Dad said they were working things out when she died.”
Nicole’s face softened.
“They weren’t.”
Ava stood abruptly.
“You’re lying too.”
“Ava—”
“Everyone keeps telling me different things!”
She paced across Emily’s living room.
“Dad says Mom was unstable. You say they were divorcing. Rachel says Dad stole my money. Grandma says everybody is overreacting.”
Her voice broke.
“Who am I supposed to believe?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then I said, “Don’t believe any of us just because we say something.”
She looked at me.
“Look at evidence.”
I pointed toward the documents.
“Dates. Bank records. Court filings. Your mother’s own emails.”
Nicole nodded.
“You have every right to ask questions.”
Ava sat again.
Nicole slid a court document forward.
Laura had filed for legal separation nine days before the car accident that killed her.
Ava stared at her mother’s signature.
“What happened to the case?”
“It ended when she died.”
“How did she die?”
Ava’s question changed the room.
Nicole looked at me.
I looked back.
Ava became angry.
“What?”
Nicole took her hand.
“It was an accident.”
“That’s what Dad says.”
“It was ruled an accident.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Nicole inhaled slowly.
“Laura was driving home during a rainstorm. Her car left the road.”
Ava’s eyes hardened.
“And?”
“And I never had evidence it was anything else.”
The word evidence hung there.
Ava pulled her hand away.
“But you wondered.”
Nicole’s silence answered.
“No,” I said firmly.
Both looked at me.
“We are not turning an old tragedy into something sinister without proof.”
Nicole nodded reluctantly.
“You’re right.”
Ava rubbed her face.
“I just want one thing in my life to be true.”
That sentence broke my heart.
Her phone rang again.
Daniel.
This time Nicole answered.
“Hello, Daniel.”
His voice was loud enough that I heard him.
“Where is my daughter?”
“She’s safe.”
“Put her on.”
“No.”
“You have no legal right to keep her from me.”
“Neither does Rachel.”
I sat straighter.
So that was what he believed.
That I had taken Ava.
Nicole kept her voice calm.
“Ava contacted me.”
“She is a minor.”
“And she is afraid to return home.”
Daniel exploded.
“She is not afraid of me!”
Ava flinched.
I saw it.
Nicole saw it too.
“Lower your voice.”
“Give Ava the phone.”
Ava shook her head.
Nicole said, “She doesn’t want to speak to you.”
Daniel went quiet.
Then his tone changed completely.
Soft.
Controlled.
“Ava, sweetheart, if you can hear me, Rachel is manipulating you.”
I watched Ava’s face.
“She has been angry with me for months. She has been planning this.”
His words were designed like hooks.
“She wants money.”
I almost laughed.
The house was largely mine because my inheritance had funded the down payment.
My income had covered most household expenses during Daniel’s company problems.
But he continued.
“She wants to punish me by taking you away.”
Ava stood and walked toward the phone.
For a moment, I thought she would defend him.
Instead, she said, “How much is left in my trust?”
Silence.
“Ava—”
“Tell me.”
“This isn’t something we discuss over the phone.”
“Rachel said less than ninety thousand.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“She had no right.”
“So it’s true?”
“I used funds to protect our family.”
“My family?”
“Yes.”
“Did you ask me?”
“You were a child.”
“I’m still a child when you want me to shut up.”
“Ava.”
“But apparently I’m an adult when you need my money.”
Nicole closed her eyes.
Daniel breathed heavily.
“You don’t understand the pressure I was under.”
Ava’s chin trembled.
“Did Mom know you took money from me?”
“That letter Rachel gave you is old and out of context.”
I stared at the phone.
He knew about the letter.
Ava stared too.
“I never told you I had a letter.”
Nobody moved.
Daniel realized his mistake.
“What letter?”
Too late.
Ava’s face went white.
“How did you know?”
“I assumed.”
“No.”
“Ava, listen—”
“You knew exactly what I meant.”
She ended the call.
Then she turned to Nicole.
“He knew.”
Nicole nodded.
Ava began trembling.
“What else does he know?”
My phone buzzed.
Rebecca.
I answered immediately.
“Rachel, we found where the seventy-five thousand dollars went.”
I put the call on speaker.
Rebecca continued.
“The receiving account belongs to an LLC.”
“What LLC?”
“Summit Ridge Holdings.”
Nicole made a sound.
I looked at her.
“You know it?”
She stared at Melissa’s photograph.
“Yes.”
Rebecca continued.
“Melissa Grant is the registered manager.”
Ava whispered, “Why would Dad send her money?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Rachel, there’s more.”
My stomach tightened.
“Tell me.”
“The LLC purchased a condominium in Denver three months ago.”
I gripped the phone.
“And Daniel is listed on the insurance documents as an occupant.”
For several seconds, I could hear nothing except the blood rushing through my ears.
Ava looked at me.
The stolen trust money suddenly had another meaning.
Daniel had not used all of it to save his company.
May you like
He had used part of his daughter’s inheritance to build another life.
And four months earlier, while I was paying to repair our roof, my husband had been helping another woman buy a home.
