Chapter 8 - What Thomas Wanted
Thomas found us in his study.
For three seconds, nobody spoke.
Then he saw the black notebook in my hand.
Something in him changed.
"Put that down."
Detective Brooks stepped between us. "Mr. Ashford, don't come any closer."
He ignored her.
"Margaret, you have no idea what that is."
"It says you paid Evelyn Crane after a transfer to St. Anne's."
His lawyer appeared behind him, breathless.
"Thomas, say nothing."
I held up the notebook.
"You told me my baby burned to death."
"Margaret--"
"You watched me grieve her for eighteen years."
His eyes moved to Emily.
"It was not supposed to happen this way."
Emily's face went still.
"What was supposed to happen?"
His attorney grabbed his arm. "Stop talking."
Thomas yanked away.
"You think I wanted a child to disappear? You think I woke up one morning and decided that?"
"Then explain it," I said.
He looked exhausted for the first time in his life.
"Your father changed the Ashford trust before Elise was born. If you had a living child, controlling interest in Ashford Holdings would eventually pass to her. Not to us. Not to me."
I stared at him.
"Us?"
"I built that company with you."
"My grandfather built it. My father expanded it. You married into it."
His face twisted.
There it was.
The resentment beneath eighteen years of tailored suits and polished speeches.
"Your father never respected me," he said. "He put a newborn above me in the succession plan."
Emily whispered, "So you got rid of me for stock?"
Thomas looked at her. "No. The fire created an opportunity. Evelyn said the nursery had to be evacuated. She could move you without anyone noticing. I thought--"
He stopped.
Detective Brooks said, "You thought what?"
His lawyer nearly shouted, "Do not answer."
Thomas finally seemed to understand where he was.
He closed his mouth.
Brooks took the notebook for evidence and told him not to leave the state.
That night, Sarah traced the old trust amendments.
The motive was worse than Thomas admitted.
If my daughter died before turning twenty-one, Thomas would gain temporary voting control through a spousal succession clause.
He had used that control for eighteen years.
Then Sarah found a second set of documents.
Thomas had borrowed seventy million dollars against those voting rights.
And the loans were due in six weeks.
"Margaret," Sarah said, staring at the screen, "if Emily is legally alive, Thomas doesn't just lose control."
May you like
She turned the laptop toward me.
"He loses everything."
