Chapter 6 - The Hidden Vault
The next day, while Lily continued to recover in the hospital under armed guard protection, I drove to my son’s house with David’s estate attorney.
The police had already cleared the crime scene, but the house felt cold and empty. We needed to find any additional financial documents to secure Lily's future before the state seized the assets for the fraud investigation.
I went into David’s old study. Jessica had clearly ransacked it; papers were everywhere, and the drawers were pulled out. But as a former investigator, I knew my son better than she did.
David had always been paranoid about fire safety. He built a hidden fireproof safe behind the built-in bookshelves. I reached behind the complete works of Shakespeare and pressed the hidden latch. The shelf popped open.
Inside was a leather-bound journal and a thumb drive.
I plugged the drive into my laptop. My heart broke all over again. It was a video diary David had started recording a month before he died.
“Mom, if you’re seeing this, it means something happened to me,” David’s digital ghost said, looking exhausted. “Jessica isn't who I thought she was. I caught her trying to change the beneficiaries on my life insurance. She’s been emotionally abusing Lily when I’m not around. I’m filing for divorce on Monday, and I’m invoking the emergency guardianship to you so she can never touch Lily.”
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He had known. He was trying to protect us, but the car crash had taken him before he could file the papers.
I clutched the thumb drive. This was the final nail in Jessica's coffin. She hadn't just neglected Lily; she had tried to steal an estate she knew she was about to be cut out of.
