Chapter 10 - Evelyn's DeathI couldn't speak.
Lydia had already said enough.
But she kept going.
“Your grandmother was poisoned.”
Samantha immediately asked,
“Do you have evidence?”
“Yes.”
Lydia handed over another file.
Medical reports.
Toxicology.
Private laboratory results.
My grandmother's official cause of death had been cardiac failure.
But the private report showed traces of a rare toxin.
A toxin that caused cardiac arrest.
“How did you get this?”
“Evelyn gave it to me.”
“She knew?”
“Yes.”
My hands shook.
“When?”
“Three days before she died.”
I closed my eyes.
For thirty years, I'd believed my grandmother had simply grown old.
I remembered her final week.
She had been pale.
Quiet.
She'd told me she was proud of me.
And she'd said something strange.
“Never let anyone make you feel small.”
I had thought it was ordinary grandmotherly advice.
Now it sounded like a warning.
Samantha studied the documents.
“This changes everything.”
“How?”
“If we establish homicide and financial fraud, we may be able to freeze the trust's assets.”
“And Derek?”
“His exposure becomes enormous.”
Derek had been listening.
He suddenly spoke.
“I didn't kill Evelyn.”
I turned.
“I didn't say you did.”
“But you're thinking it.”
“Shouldn't I?”
He looked at me.
“I loved her.”
“Then why did you help the people who wanted her dead?”
“I didn't know.”
Lydia laughed.
“You knew enough.”
Derek looked at her.
“You don't know what happened.”
“I know you left me on that boat.”
He flinched.
“You survived.”
“I wasn't supposed to.”
Silence.
Harold stepped between them.
“My son has lied to everyone.”
Derek stared at him.
“You've lied too.”
Harold looked confused.
Derek reached into his pocket.
Then placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Harold meeting Eleanor.
Years earlier.
In secret.
Harold looked at it.
Then at me.
“Your grandmother wasn't the only one who planned things.”
I felt exhausted.
“Who else knew?”
Harold sighed.
“All of us.”
That night, Samantha filed emergency motions.
The bank froze several accounts.
The trust was put under temporary judicial protection.
Derek couldn't access the business funds.
Margaret's assets were flagged.
Eleanor disappeared.
But at 2:13 A.M., I received an email.
One attachment.
A video.
I opened it.
My grandmother appeared on screen.
She was sitting in the library.
But this video was different.
She looked frightened.
“Claire, if you're watching this, then the trust has been activated.”
She paused.
“There is one final truth.”
She leaned toward the camera.
“I didn't create the trust to give you my fortune.”
She looked directly into the lens.
“I created it because your mother is still alive.”
I stared.
My mother had died when I was six.
That was the story I'd always been told.
The video continued.
“She changed her name.”
My heart stopped.
“She has spent thirty-two years hiding.”
Then my grandmother whispered the name.
“Her name now is Margaret Voss.”
I dropped the phone.
Margaret.
Derek's mother.
My mother.
The woman who had spent years humiliating me.
The woman who had demanded breakfast.
The woman who had treated my house like hers.
May you like
She wasn't my mother-in-law.
She was my mother.
