Chapter 5 - The PetitionDanielle learned about the petition before Ethan did.
Samuel Pike called her attorney at seven the next morning.
By eight-thirty, Danielle was sitting in a conference room at Naomi Brooks’s law office in White Plains, staring at fourteen pages she had never seen before.
Mia was home with Ethan and a pediatric nurse.
Danielle had slept less than an hour.
Naomi slid the document across the table.
“Don't touch the original copy. This is a scan.”
Danielle read the title again.
In the Matter of the Mia Hale Family Trust — Petition for Removal of Trustee Danielle Hale.
Her stomach turned.
“What was her basis?”
“Alleged instability. Neglect. Conflict of interest.”
“Conflict with what?”
“Hale Meridian.”
“I’m supposed to have a conflict because I won't let them gamble my daughter’s inheritance on bad development deals?”
Naomi lifted one shoulder.
“That appears to be the theory.”
Danielle turned pages.
Photographs.
She stopped.
One showed Mia standing alone near the mansion’s koi pond.
Danielle remembered the afternoon.
She had been six feet away, behind the camera.
Another showed Mia crying in a supermarket parking lot.
A third showed Danielle drinking wine at a restaurant.
“The hell is this?”
“Evidence package.”
“Evidence of what?”
“Of someone building a story.”
Danielle stared at the restaurant photograph.
She had attended a charity dinner with Ethan. She had consumed half a glass of pinot noir.
The image had been cropped so nobody else at the table was visible.
“Someone followed me.”
Naomi nodded.
“For at least two months.”
Danielle flipped to the signature page.
Evelyn Hale.
And beneath it:
Prepared with assistance of M. Cole, corporate liaison.
Danielle froze.
“Martin?”
“That jumped out at me too.”
“He's not a lawyer.”
“No. But according to the metadata Samuel provided, he sent the source documents to the outside firm that drafted this.”
Danielle stood so fast her chair rolled backward.
“I need Ethan.”
“Danielle.”
“He trusts Martin.”
“Exactly why you should not go into this angry.”
“I am angry.”
“I know.”
“My daughter was under a pool cover while his CFO was building a legal case to take control of her trust.”
Naomi closed the folder.
“Then anger is appropriate. Carelessness isn't.”
At Hale House, Ethan stood in the kitchen while Thomas prepared coffee nobody wanted.
Mia sat at the island coloring a picture of a dog.
The hospital had discharged her shortly after midnight.
She had asked twice whether Grandma was coming home.
Neither parent had known what to say.
Thomas placed the coffee down.
“Sir.”
Ethan looked up.
“What?”
“You should know I was not scheduled to be in the breakfast room yesterday.”
Ethan frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“Mrs. Hale asked me to inventory the wine cellar at two o'clock.”
“Then why weren't you there?”
“I found it odd.”
“Why?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Because she has never cared about the cellar inventory.”
Ethan stared at him.
“So you stayed upstairs?”
“I returned early.”
“Did she know?”
“I don't believe so.”
Mia held up her drawing.
“Daddy, look.”
Ethan forced himself to smile.
“Beautiful.”
“It’s Cooper.”
They didn't own a dog.
He did not correct her.
His phone rang.
Martin Cole.
Ethan stared at the name.
Detective Ortiz had told him not to initiate contact.
She had not said what to do if Martin called.
He answered.
“Martin.”
“Jesus, Ethan. I just heard.”
“You just heard?”
“I was on a plane from Chicago. What happened?”
Ethan looked at Thomas.
“My mother closed the pool cover while Mia was in the water.”
Silence.
Then Martin whispered, “What?”
“Someone also deleted the security footage using my credentials.”
Another silence.
Shorter this time.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because those credentials require local authentication.”
Ethan felt something shift.
“I didn't tell you which system was used.”
Martin stopped speaking.
Ethan stared at the counter.
Neither did I tell you it required authentication, he thought.
Martin cleared his throat.
“I'm assuming you mean the Savant integration we installed.”
“You remembered the brand?”
“I approved the invoice.”
Three years ago.
Ethan had not remembered the brand himself.
The front door opened.
Danielle entered with Naomi.
She put a folder onto the counter.
“Ask him about this.”
Martin heard her voice.
“Is Danielle there?”
Ethan looked at the first page.
His face changed.
“Martin, did you help my mother prepare a petition to remove Danielle as trustee of Mia’s trust?”
Thomas stopped pouring coffee.
Martin exhaled.
“Ethan, that wasn't what you think.”
“What do I think?”
“It was contingency planning.”
“For what?”
“Your mother was worried.”
“About Danielle?”
“About the company.”
Ethan laughed once.
“You followed my wife?”
“I didn't follow anybody.”
“There are surveillance photographs.”
“I contracted a compliance review.”
“Of my wife?”
Martin’s tone hardened.
“You need to understand something before you turn this into a witch hunt. The trust controls thirty percent of Hale Meridian. Danielle has repeatedly threatened to block financing.”
“Because the financing is terrible.”
Naomi raised an eyebrow at Ethan.
He barely noticed.
Martin continued.
“Your father didn't build this company so an outsider could dismantle it.”
Danielle stepped closer to the phone.
“I'm not an outsider. I'm Mia’s mother.”
Martin went quiet.
Then he said something Ethan would remember for years.
“No, Danielle. You're the person Arthur put between Evelyn and what Evelyn believes belongs to her.”
The line disconnected.
Ethan stared at the phone.
Naomi opened the petition to its final attachment.
“There’s more.”
She pointed to a calendar entry.
A hearing had been tentatively scheduled for the following month.
Ethan read the proposed allegation.
May you like
Recent incident demonstrating reckless parental supervision.
The document had been drafted six days before there had been any incident at all.
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