Chapter 5: The Second Question
I stared at the message for a long time.
Then I called Samantha.
She answered on the third ring, her voice alert despite the hour.
"Victoria.
Is everything alright?
Is it Clara?"
"Clara's fine.
Samantha — is there a second will?"
Silence.
Not long.
Two seconds, maybe three.
But I had known Samantha for six years, and she did not pause like that unless something was true.
"Where did you hear that?"
"Someone just texted me.
Unknown number.
They said Lucas was hiding something and told me to ask you about a second will."
Another pause.
"I need you to forward me that message right now."
I did.
"Samantha.
Tell me."
She exhaled slowly.
"There is not a second will.
What there is — is a codicil.
A legal amendment Lucas added to his original will eleven months ago.
I was going to discuss it with you once you were home from the hospital and had some time to recover."
"Tell me now."
"Victoria —"
"Please."
She was quiet for a moment.
"The codicil establishes a secondary beneficiary for a portion of the estate.
A trust fund.
Fifty thousand dollars, held separately from everything else, designated for a specific individual." A pause.
"A woman named Diane Reeves."
The name meant nothing to me.
"Who is she?"
"According to the documentation Lucas provided, she was his business partner in the early years of the company.
Before it became Baldwin-Gallagher.
He described her as the person who gave him his first real opportunity." Samantha's voice was careful, measured.
"He wanted to provide for her in his later years.
She's seventy-one.
She lives alone in Rochester."
I sat with that for a moment.
"Why didn't he tell me?"
"I asked him the same question.
He said he didn't want it to seem like more than it was.
He was worried you'd misread it."
"Did he say anything else about her?"
"He said she was the reason he believed he could build something worth leaving behind."
Clara made a small sound in her sleep.
I looked down at her.
"Is she the one who texted me?"
"I don't know.
But whoever sent that message had access to information they should not have.
The codicil is not public record.
Only four people knew about it — Lucas, myself, Eleanor, and one other."
"Who?"
Samantha's voice dropped slightly.
"Your father."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"Charles knew?"
"Lucas disclosed it to him during their second meeting.
He was trying to demonstrate that the estate was organized and accounted for — that there was nothing loose for Charles to claim.
He showed him the full will and the codicil." A pause.
"I advised against it at the time."
"So Charles knew about Diane Reeves."
"Yes."
"And someone just used her name to try to destabilize me the night my daughter was born."
Samantha didn't answer immediately.
"Get some sleep," she said finally.
"I'm tracing the number.
Eleanor will be at your house tomorrow morning with the full estate documentation.
Don't respond to that message.
Don't contact anyone about Diane Reeves until we've spoken."
I set the phone down.
Clara's fist had uncurled in her sleep.
Her fingers were open, reaching at nothing.
I thought about Lucas sitting across from my father, trying to show him there was nothing to take.
Trying to be reasonable with a man who had already decided what he wanted.
May you like
And I thought about Charles, sitting in a police interview room this afternoon, knowing exactly which name to use to shake me.
He hadn't finished yet.
