Chapter 2: The Second Will
Part 2 ⬇️
Judge Thorne didn't hesitate.
"Send me what you have.
I'll have the order signed within the hour."
I helped my father into clean clothes, then sat beside him on the edge of the tub while we waited.
He kept glancing at the locked door.
"They'll be angry," he whispered.
"Let them be," I said.
Forty minutes later, two sheriff's deputies were at the front door.
Julian's face went white when he saw the uniforms.
Then he saw me standing behind them, and something shifted in his expression — not guilt.
Calculation.
"Elena, what did you tell them?" His voice was still controlled.
Still performing.
"The truth," I said.
"Something you forgot I was trained to find."
Chloe stepped forward, chin raised.
"Your father has dementia.
Everyone knows it.
Anything he told you is confused."
The deputy looked at me.
I handed him my phone — the photographs, the recorded statement, the timestamps.
Chloe's smile didn't disappear all at once.
It dissolved, slowly, as she realized what she was looking at.
Then Julian said something that made my bl00d run c0ld.
May you like
"You should ask her about the second will," he said quietly, looking straight at me.
"The one Dad signed before you got here today."
