Chapter 3: Everything He Took
Edward was already in the conference room when Lucy arrived the next morning.
He was seated at the head of the table, both hands flat on the surface, his face the color of old ash.
Beside him sat a man Lucy didn't recognize — mid-fifties, silver hair, a charcoal suit with a small pin on the lapel that read *Hargrove & Associates, Legal Counsel.*
The lawyer from the day before, whose name Lucy had learned was Ms.
Reyes, stood near the window with a second folder.
"Sit down, sweetheart," Edward said.
Lucy sat.
"Who is he?"
"My attorney.
He's been working on this since last week." Edward looked at Ms.
Reyes.
"Show her the rest."
Ms.
Reyes opened the second folder and laid out three documents side by side.
The first was a power of attorney form — signed, notarized, dated the day after Ethan was born.
Lucy's name at the bottom.
Not her handwriting.
The second was a bank transfer record.
The Pinecrest property had been refinanced eleven months after the forged transfer.
Julian had taken out a loan against it for four hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
The third was a business registration.
A company called Vance Premier Holdings, LLC.
Registered owner: Julian Vance.
Co-owner: a woman named Renata Solís.
"Who is Renata Solís?" Lucy asked.
Edward's jaw tightened.
"The woman he married."
The room went quiet.
"They've been together for at least four years," Ms.
Reyes said carefully.
"Possibly longer.
The company was registered three years ago.
The mansion was used as the primary collateral for two business loans.
The second loan defaulted eight months ago."
"So the mansion—"
"Is currently in foreclosure proceedings," Ms.
Reyes said.
"But because the original transfer was fraudulent, and because your grandfather never legally released the deed without your countersignature — which you never gave — there is a strong legal argument that the transfer is void."
Lucy stared at the documents.
"He forged my signature while I was in the hospital."
"Yes."
"While I was recovering from nearly dying after having his child."
Nobody answered.
Nobody needed to.
Edward reached across the table and covered her hand with his.
His fingers were cold.
"I should have checked sooner.
I should have come to see you.
I believed what he told me — that you were settled, that you were happy, that you didn't want contact." His voice dropped.
"He told me you'd said I was interfering."
"He told me you were ashamed of me."
Edward closed his eyes.
"He kept us apart on purpose," Lucy said.
It wasn't a question.
"Yes," Ms.
Reyes said quietly.
"That appears to be the case."
Lucy picked up the business registration and looked at Renata Solís's name.
She thought about the woman in silk on the video call.
The orchids.
The crystal glasses.
The necklace that had belonged to her mother, sitting open in a velvet box like a trophy.
"What do we do?" she asked.
Edward opened his eyes.
The ash color was gone.
Something harder had replaced it.
"We take it back," he said.
"All of it."
Ms.
Reyes nodded.
"We've already filed an emergency injunction to halt the foreclosure.
The forgery claim gives us grounds.
But there's something you need to know before we go further."
She placed one more document on the table.
A photograph, printed on plain paper.
It showed Julian and Renata at what appeared to be a charity gala.
Formal wear, champagne, wide smiles.
Standing beside them — shaking Julian's hand — was a man in a judge's robe.
"Julian has a relationship with a sitting family court judge," Ms.
Reyes said.
"Judge Harlan Pruitt.
They've been photographed together at three separate events over the past two years."
Lucy set the photo down slowly.
"He planned for this," she said.
"It appears so."
Her phone buzzed on the table.
She looked at the screen.
A text from Julian: *Hey Lu.
Haven't heard from you.
Everything okay?
Ethan good?*
She turned the phone face-down without replying.
"How long will this take?" she asked.
"Months, if he fights it," Ms.
Reyes said.
"And he will fight it."
"Then we start today," Lucy said.
Edward looked at his granddaughter across the table — the woman who had been drinking plain coffee for dinner so her son could eat.
Something moved across his face that he didn't try to hide.
"Yes," he said.
"We do."
Lucy's phone buzzed again.
Same number.
*Lu?
You're worrying me.
Call me when you can.*
She picked up the phone, looked at the message for a long moment, then set it back down.
She didn't call.
But Julian would find out soon enough that she'd been to the law office.
May you like
And when he did, Lucy had no doubt he would stop pretending to be worried.
He would start being dangerous.
