Chapter 7 - The Man Who Was Already DeadWe didn't speak during the drive back to Savannah.
My father's hands were tight around the steering wheel.
Evelyn sat in the passenger seat.
I sat in the back, staring at Grandpa's old phone.
Victor Hale had been dead for eight months.
A boating accident.
That's what the obituary had said.
I remembered it now.
I'd seen his name.
I'd simply never cared.
Because at the time, I was grieving Grandpa.
Now the timing felt impossible.
Eight months.
Grandpa died eighteen months ago.
Victor died eight months ago.
Someone had been using Victor's name.
Someone who knew things only people close to the family should know.
When we arrived at my parents' house, the driveway was empty.
Cole was gone.
Tiffany was gone.
My mother stood in the kitchen.
She saw my face.
"What happened?"
I placed Grandpa's phone on the counter.
"Victor called me."
Her expression changed.
"What?"
"Victor."
She stared at the phone.
"That's impossible."
"Exactly."
She sat down.
I pulled out a chair opposite her.
"Tell me about the night Grandpa died."
She looked at my father.
He didn't say anything.
I asked again.
"Mom."
She lowered her head.
"Your grandfather was angry."
"At whom?"
"Your father."
My father's face tightened.
"That's not fair."
"Then tell her."
He looked at me.
"Bernard believed I'd made a deal with Victor."
"Had you?"
"No."
My mother interrupted.
"Not directly."
I looked at her.
"What does that mean?"
She pressed her palms together.
"I gave Victor some records."
"You said that."
"There were also letters."
"What letters?"
"From your grandfather."
"To whom?"
"I don't know."
"Mom."
She started crying.
"I thought they were private."
"So you gave them to Victor?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he said Bernard was trying to ruin us."
I felt something crack inside me.
"Did Grandpa tell you he was going to disinherit the family?"
"He said he'd cut off Cole."
"And you believed Victor."
"Yes."
I looked toward my father.
"And you?"
"I knew Bernard was furious."
"You knew he was suspicious."
"Yes."
"You still let Mom give Victor access."
My father said quietly, "I made mistakes."
"That's not an answer."
"No."
He looked at me.
"It isn't."
I leaned back.
"Did Cole know Victor was involved?"
My mother shook her head.
"Not initially."
"Initially?"
She hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Later."
A cold feeling moved through me.
"When?"
"After the restaurant started failing."
I closed my eyes.
Cole had known.
He had known Victor.
He had known money was moving.
He had known Grandpa was suspicious.
And yet he'd stood in front of forty people and announced that Grandpa left us all equally.
Why?
Because if the estate went to me, the audit would continue.
And if the audit continued, everything would surface.
The chili wasn't just humiliation.
It was a distraction.
A public rupture.
A way to force me out of the family before I could finish the investigation.
I looked at Mom.
"Who planned tonight?"
She started crying harder.
"Cole."
"Who else?"
She didn't answer.
My father did.
"Victor."
I stared at him.
"Victor is dead."
"Then someone is carrying on what he started."
I stood.
"We need to find the list."
Evelyn shook her head.
"First we need protection."
"I'm not hiding."
"I'm not asking you to hide."
She reached into her bag.
"Your grandfather anticipated exactly this."
She handed me a small USB drive.
I stared at it.
"Where did you get that?"
"From my office."
"What's on it?"
"Instructions."
I plugged it into my laptop.
A video file appeared.
No title.
I opened it.
Grandpa appeared on screen.
He was sitting in his study.
Alive.
Healthy.
Looking directly at the camera.
My throat tightened.
"If you're watching this, then the first part of my plan worked."
I stared at him.
He continued.
"They will try to convince you that you're greedy."
A pause.
"They will tell you the money should be divided fairly."
He leaned forward.
"Fairness is not sameness."
My eyes filled with tears.
"Your grandmother taught me that."
Then Grandpa looked more serious.
"There is something else you must understand."
He held up a document.
"Your family did not discover my estate."
"They discovered one asset."
He placed the document on the desk.
"Everything else was hidden."
Evelyn whispered, "There."
The video continued.
"The land in Georgia."
"The accounts in Florida."
"The voting shares."
"And the company nobody in this family knows I owned."
I leaned closer to the screen.
"What company?"
Grandpa smiled.
"You'll know it when you see the name."
Then he said it.
A company name that made my blood run cold.
Because it was the same company that had supplied construction materials to Cole's restaurant.
The same company my father had used for years.
The same company Tiffany had quietly received payments from.
I paused the video.
Nobody spoke.
Then I looked at my mother.
"How much?"
She whispered, "I don't know."
"How much did that company make?"
"I don't know."
Evelyn took out a report.
"Approximately forty-two million dollars in gross transactions over the last six years."
I stared at the number.
Forty-two million.
This was no longer a family inheritance dispute.
It was an empire built on something rotten.
And Grandpa had hidden the key to it.
I resumed the video.
Grandpa looked into the camera.
"The final document is in a place only Megan knows."
I frowned.
"What place?"
He smiled.
Then the screen went black.
A single sentence appeared.
WHERE YOU FIRST LEARNED TO TELL THE TRUTH.
I stared at it.
May you like
Then I knew.
The old debate room at Mercer.
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