Chapter 6 - The ContingencyThe number was eighteen million dollars.
Darius stared at it until it stopped looking like money.
Leah's trust held shares in a hospitality company founded by her grandfather, investment accounts, and an interest in two commercial properties.
Ava was the beneficiary.
Darius served as trustee only for routine matters. Major transactions required approval from Grace and an independent trust protector.
But there was an old contingency clause.
If Ava died before reaching twenty-five without descendants, most of the trust principal passed to Darius outright.
Leah had written the clause years before her death, when Darius was the only person she trusted to protect Ava.
"She never changed it?" Darius asked.
"She had no reason to," Grace replied. "She trusted you."
Darius almost laughed at the cruelty of that sentence.
Grace continued.
"Once the assets pass to you, they are no longer protected by Ava's trust."
"And because Nia is my wife—"
"She could benefit indirectly. Depending on what you did with the assets, possibly very directly."
Darius pushed back from the table.
"That doesn't prove she tried to kill Ava."
"No."
"Then why did she request the documents?"
"That is what I would like to know."
Darius stared at the electronic authorization.
"I didn't sign this."
Grace tapped the page.
"Your credentials did."
"I gave Nia access to some business accounts after we married."
"Which accounts?"
Darius hesitated.
Too many.
Nia had offered to simplify his life.
Household bills.
Foundation events.
Travel.
Insurance.
Eventually, investment summaries.
Darius had never thought of it as surrendering control.
Until now.
Grace said, "We need a forensic accountant."
Darius nodded.
"We also need to secure your electronic accounts."
"Do it."
"And Darius?"
He looked at her.
"Do not confront Nia about the trust clause."
He gave a humorless smile.
"She already knows."
Neither of them realized how literally true that was.
Upstairs, Nia closed the bedroom door and leaned against it.
Her hands were trembling.
She opened the closet.
The tablet was gone.
She knew where Darius had put it.
His office safe.
She also knew he had changed the combination after Leah died.
Nia reached into a jewelry drawer and removed an old phone.
Not her current one.
A second device.
She typed a message.
He called Holloway.
A reply came less than a minute later.
Then we're out of time.
Nia stared at it.
She typed:
No. We change the story.
Downstairs, Darius called the security company.
The administrator logs showed the pool camera had been disabled at 2:06 p.m.
Ava approached Nia around 2:17.
The camera came back online at 2:28.
The shutdown request came from Nia's tablet.
Darius felt his stomach turn.
"Can that be spoofed?"
The technician answered, "Technically possible. But it would require someone with your credentials and the registered device token."
Darius looked at the locked safe.
"Can you tell whether the tablet itself was used?"
"We can confirm the device identity. We'd need a forensic examination for more."
"Preserve everything."
"Already done."
Darius ended the call.
Nia entered his office.
He looked at her.
She smiled.
"Are we still pretending I'm a criminal?"
Darius said nothing.
She stepped closer.
"Emily has poisoned this house against me."
"No."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Thinking."
Nia gave a small laugh.
"That's new."
The insult landed because it was partly true.
Darius stood.
"You requested Leah's trust."
The color left Nia's face.
Grace's warning echoed too late.
Nia recovered.
"You gave me permission."
"I didn't."
"Then maybe you forgot."
"I didn't."
"You forget plenty when you're angry."
Darius stared at her.
Then Nia said something that stayed with him for months.
"You should be very careful, Darius. If you start digging through this family, you might not like which person turns out to be guilty."
She walked away.
Darius watched her leave.
May you like
Only later would he understand she had not been warning him about herself.
She had been warning him about what she planned to make everyone believe about him.
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