Chapter 3: What Lucas Left Behind
Her name was Eleanor Marsh.
I knew that because she introduced herself to me first, crouching down to my level on the porch, her document case resting on the step beside her.
"Victoria Gallagher?"
"Yes."
"I'm Eleanor Marsh.
I'm a senior partner at Hargrove and Marsh.
Lucas retained our firm eighteen months ago." She glanced at my stomach, then back at my face.
"An ambulance is two minutes out.
Can you tell me where you're feeling pain?"
"My knee.
My back.
Contractions started."
She nodded once and stood.
Then she turned to face Charles.
She didn't raise her voice.
She didn't need to.
"Mr.
Baldwin.
I'm going to need you to step away from that desk and place both hands where I can see them."
Charles laughed.
It came out wrong — too high, too fast.
"Who do you think you are?"
"I'm the attorney who filed a protective legal hold on this property at seven forty-two this morning." She opened the document case and removed a single sheet.
"This is a certified copy of that filing.
The house, the investment accounts, and the controlling interest in Baldwin-Gallagher Logistics are frozen pending a fraud investigation.
If you have touched, moved, or removed anything from this property in the last hour, I would strongly suggest you stop speaking until your own attorney arrives."
Courtney's hand dropped from Charles's arm.
"What fraud investigation?" she said.
Eleanor didn't look at her.
"Mr.
Baldwin.
Step away from the desk."
Charles didn't move immediately.
His jaw worked like he was searching for the right words and couldn't find them.
"This is my daughter's house," he finally said.
"I was protecting her interests."
"You called my colleague's office yesterday and claimed Victoria had authorized you to liquidate the estate.
Victoria did not authorize that.
Lucas anticipated that someone might make that claim.
He left a recorded instruction with our firm dated four months ago." Eleanor tilted her head slightly.
"Would you like me to play it here, or would you prefer to wait for the officers?"
The first patrol car pulled up behind Eleanor's sedan.
Charles looked at the officers stepping out.
He looked at Eleanor.
He looked at me, still on the porch, one hand braced against the railing, the other pressed beneath my stomach.
Something moved across his face.
Not guilt.
Not yet.
Something closer to calculation — the look of a man deciding how much damage he could still contain.
"I want a lawyer," he said.
"That's the first sensible thing you've said today," Eleanor replied.
She stepped aside to let the officers through, then came back to me and sat on the porch step.
"The ambulance is here," she said quietly.
I could hear it now, turning onto the street.
"He forged my signature," I said.
"We know.
Lucas's fraud clause requires two independent witnesses to any transaction involving the estate.
Charles had neither.
Whatever he signed, it's void." She paused.
"Lucas was very thorough."
My throat tightened.
"He knew something like this might happen?"
Eleanor was quiet for a moment.
"He knew your father had approached him twice about the company.
Once before your wedding, once about eight months before the accident.
Lucas told him no both times." She looked at me carefully.
"He didn't tell you because he didn't want you to carry it."
The ambulance pulled up.
I let the paramedics help me onto the stretcher.
I kept my eyes on the front door as they wheeled me toward the vehicle.
Charles was standing in the hallway, two officers beside him, his phone face-down on Lucas's desk where Eleanor had made him leave it.
Courtney was sitting on the bottom stair with her arms crossed, staring at the floor.
Neither of them looked at me.
I looked at them anyway.
May you like
"That's my house," I said.
Nobody argued.
