Chapter 4 - What Lauren Hid
Daniel opened the hospital-room door.
“Give it to me.”
Lauren looked at the flash drive in her hand.
Then at Margaret.
“I found it on the road.”
“You said nothing.”
“I was bringing it back.”
“When?”
“Now.”
Daniel held out his hand.
Lauren did not move.
“Lauren.”
She placed the drive in his palm.
“I didn’t steal it.”
Margaret said, “Then why did you put it in your purse?”
Lauren’s gaze sharpened.
“I didn’t.”
“I watched you take it out.”
Daniel glanced down.
The drive was scratched.
Its plastic casing had been pried apart.
His expression changed.
“What did you do to this?”
“Nothing.”
“You opened it.”
“No.”
“You think I can’t see the marks?”
Lauren’s composure cracked.
“Fine. I wanted to know what was on it.”
“Why?”
“Because she accused me of attempted murder!”
“You pushed her.”
“I did not.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“Then why are you trying to read evidence connected to company theft?”
“I didn’t know it was connected to anything.”
“You knew enough to open it.”
A nurse appeared at the doorway.
“Everything okay?”
Margaret answered before anyone else could.
“Yes.”
The nurse looked unconvinced.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Go home.”
Lauren stared at him.
“What?”
“Go home.”
“You’re choosing her?”
“I’m choosing not to have this conversation in a hospital.”
“She hates me.”
Margaret almost laughed.
Daniel said, “This is not about whether she likes you.”
“It has always been about that.”
“No. Now it’s about three-point-six million dollars and my mother saying you pushed her down a mountain.”
Lauren’s face changed.
Something colder replaced the tears.
“You don’t know what your mother has done.”
Margaret watched her carefully.
Daniel asked, “What does that mean?”
Lauren picked up her bag.
“Ask her why your father changed his trust six months before he died.”
Margaret’s pulse jumped.
Daniel turned.
“What?”
Lauren left.
The door closed behind her.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“What did she mean?”
Margaret did not answer immediately.
Charles Hale had died four years earlier from pancreatic cancer.
Six months before his death, he had changed several estate documents.
Daniel had known about most of them.
Not all.
“Mom.”
“Your father created a voting trust.”
“For the company.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“You know the version he showed you.”
Daniel stared.
“What version didn’t he show me?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
There it was.
The secret she and Charles had agreed never to explain unless absolutely necessary.
Charles had feared something before he died.
Not Lauren.
At least, not initially.
He had feared Daniel.
Not because Daniel was dishonest.
Because he was trusting.
Charles believed the company could be taken from him through debt, pressure, marriage, or manipulation.
So he had placed the controlling block of Hale Ridge shares into a protective trust.
Margaret held the power to appoint the successor trustee.
Daniel would inherit the economic benefit.
But not automatic control.
“You don’t own the voting majority you think you’ll inherit,” Margaret said.
Daniel stared.
“My shares are my shares.”
“Your thirty-two percent is.”
“And yours?”
“Thirty-eight percent.”
“I inherit them.”
“You inherit the beneficial interest.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone else may control the vote.”
Daniel stood very still.
“Who?”
“I haven’t appointed anyone.”
Daniel looked wounded.
“You didn’t trust me?”
“I trusted you.”
“Then why?”
“Your father was afraid someone would manipulate you through the people you loved.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“You mean Lauren.”
“No. He made the change before we had reason to distrust her.”
“Then who?”
Margaret looked toward the window.
“Mark Benson.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“That makes no sense.”
“Your father found irregularities.”
“In Mark’s accounts?”
“He never proved them.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Charles was dying. Because the transactions stopped. Because Mark had been his closest friend for twenty years.”
Daniel paced once across the room.
“And Lauren knows this?”
“She shouldn’t.”
“But she does.”
Margaret nodded.
That was what frightened her.
The trust documents were stored in a private legal file.
Only four people had known the details.
Margaret.
Charles.
Their estate attorney.
And Mark Benson.
Daniel stopped pacing.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“If Lauren knows what Dad put in that trust…”
Margaret finished the thought.
“Then someone who knew your father’s secret told her.”
May you like
Daniel looked at the door Lauren had just walked through.
And suddenly the missing money had two suspects instead of one.
