Chapter 6 - What Sabina Knew

Detective Mara Quinn did not raise her voice.

That made Sabina more nervous than anger would have.

“Ms. Sabina Mercer?”

Sabina looked at Chadworth.

“You called the police?”

Quinn repeated, “Ms. Mercer?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to speak with you regarding allegations of unlawful surveillance, document fraud, and potential child endangerment.”

Sabina laughed once.

“This is absurd.”

“Perhaps.”

“You can’t just enter someone’s home.”

Chadworth said, “It’s my home.”

She turned on him.

“You’re really doing this?”

“Yes.”

“For Rosamund?”

“For my daughters.”

“That maid has manipulated you exactly like I warned.”

Quinn watched the exchange.

“Ms. Mercer, you are not under arrest at this moment.”

“At this moment?”

“You may decline to speak.”

Sabina looked at Chadworth.

“Where are the girls?”

He said nothing.

“Where are they?”

“Safe.”

“With her?”

“Yes.”

Sabina’s face twisted.

“You have no idea what you’re doing.”

Chadworth almost laughed.

“For once, I agree.”

Quinn said, “Ms. Mercer, we have a few questions about Elias Voss.”

Sabina’s gaze shifted.

Barely.

Quinn noticed.

“Do you know him?”

“Of course. He’s a lawyer.”

“Your lawyer?”

“No.”

“Mr. Prescott’s?”

“Sometimes.”

Chadworth said, “Not anymore.”

Sabina ignored him.

Quinn continued.

“Did you meet Mr. Voss at Everlock Storage last night?”

“I met him briefly.”

“Why?”

“He had some of my personal things.”

“What things?”

“Documents.”

“Which documents?”

“Private ones.”

“Guardianship petitions?”

Sabina looked at Chadworth.

He saw calculation happening.

Then she smiled.

“Drafts.”

“For Lorelai and Gemma?”

“In case Chadworth and I married.”

Quinn asked, “Why would you prepare emergency guardianship papers before marriage?”

“Because Chadworth travels constantly.”

“That does not make him dead or incapacitated.”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Responsible adults plan.”

Chadworth stepped forward.

“Responsible adults don’t forge my initials.”

Sabina’s eyes flashed.

“I never forged anything.”

Quinn looked at her.

“Did Mr. Voss?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did Arthur Bell provide signature samples?”

“I have no idea.”

Chadworth thought of the call.

Quinn had already heard it.

She continued.

“Did you instruct Mr. Bell to delete a guardianship petition today?”

Sabina’s face went completely still.

“No.”

Quinn waited.

Sabina looked at Chadworth.

“What did you do?”

“Listened.”

“You recorded me.”

“Arthur consented.”

“You trapped me.”

“No,” Chadworth said. “You called him.”

Sabina’s control cracked.

“This entire house has become insane because of one employee.”

Rosamund was not there.

Chadworth had insisted.

He did not want Sabina seeing the person she had targeted.

Quinn said, “Let’s discuss surveillance.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Four unauthorized cameras and one audio device were recovered.”

Sabina shrugged.

“Security devices.”

“Not registered with the home system.”

“Maybe Marcus installed them.”

Marcus stood near the doorway.

“No.”

Sabina smiled toward him.

“You expect me to trust him?”

Quinn said, “The devices routed data through the Prescott Family Office.”

“That has nothing to do with me.”

“Several cached recordings include your voice directing a child to make a false statement.”

Sabina went pale.

Chadworth watched the mask fall for the second time.

Not cruelty now.

Fear.

Quinn said, “Would you like an attorney?”

Sabina whispered, “Yes.”

“Good choice.”

The interview stopped.

Police did not arrest her that evening.

Chadworth hated that.

Quinn explained in the foyer.

“We need warrants for Everlock and Voss’s devices.”

“She walks out?”

“For now.”

“She abused my daughters.”

“We have evidence of coercive behavior and a documented bruise. We need forensic interviews done properly.”

“She planted cameras in their bedrooms.”

“We need to establish who purchased and installed them.”

“She admitted nothing.”

“That is common.”

Chadworth stared through the glass doors at Sabina’s car waiting outside.

Quinn lowered her voice.

“If you push for speed over proof, you may help her.”

Marcus had said the same thing.

Chadworth hated both of them for being right.

“What do I do?”

“Keep her away from the children.”

“Done.”

“Preserve every device.”

“Done.”

“Do not contact Voss.”

“Fine.”

“Do not enter the storage unit.”

“Fine.”

“Do not conduct your own interrogation.”

Chadworth looked at her.

“I own a multinational company.”

“And yet somehow I remain unconvinced that qualifies you as a detective.”

Marcus coughed to hide a laugh.

Chadworth glared.

Quinn almost smiled.

Then she became serious.

“There is something else.”

“What?”

“We ran Sabina Mercer.”

“And?”

“She has no convictions.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

“But she has another name.”

Chadworth frowned.

“What name?”

“Sabina Claire Mercer was born Sabina Claire Voss.”

Silence.

Marcus said, “Voss is her brother?”

“Half brother.”

Chadworth closed his eyes.

Of course.

Quinn continued.

“She changed surnames after her mother remarried.”

“Why didn’t my background people find it?”

Marcus answered before Quinn could.

“They did. It was probably classified as ordinary family history.”

Chadworth looked at him.

“You knew?”

“I did not connect Elias Voss because we had dozens of Voss records in legacy legal files.”

Quinn said, “That relationship matters.”

Chadworth’s anger sharpened.

“She brought her brother into my estate planning.”

“Yes.”

“As outside counsel.”

“Yes.”

“And nobody flagged it.”

Marcus said, “I’m flagging it now.”

Chadworth stared at the floor.

Quinn asked, “Who is Amelia?”

He looked up.

“My late wife.”

“How did she die?”

“Cancer. Four years ago.”

“Sabina knew her?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

Chadworth frowned.

“What does Amelia have to do with this?”

“We found a reference to an Amelia Prescott file in one of Voss’s cloud folders.”

The foyer seemed to narrow.

“What reference?”

“Not the contents. Just a filename on a synced index.”

“What filename?”

Quinn checked her notes.

“AMELIA_CONTINGENCY_FINAL.”

Chadworth felt his stomach turn.

“Why would Voss have anything from Amelia?”

“Did he represent her?”

“No.”

“Did his firm?”

“Maybe years ago. I don’t know.”

Marcus said, “We can check.”

Chadworth’s voice went cold.

“Check now.”

They did.

An hour later, Marcus returned from the records office.

His face was wrong.

“What?”

Marcus closed the door.

“Amelia consulted the Voss firm once.”

“When?”

“Five years ago.”

“About what?”

“Estate protection.”

Chadworth sat.

“She had her own attorney.”

“She apparently sought a second opinion.”

“Why?”

“There’s no memo.”

“What is there?”

“A billing entry.”

“For?”

Marcus read.

“Confidential consultation regarding minor children, remarriage risk, and coercive control safeguards.”

Chadworth stared.

Rosamund, who had returned after Sabina left, whispered, “Amelia was worried before she died?”

He shook his head.

“She never told me.”

Marcus continued.

“The attorney on the file was Elias Voss’s father.”

Chadworth looked at him.

“So Elias could have inherited the file.”

“Possibly.”

Rosamund said, “Or found it.”

Quinn, still in the house, joined them.

“What did Mrs. Prescott know?”

Chadworth’s voice was raw.

“She knew I was bad at being home.”

Rosamund looked at him.

“That’s not what the file title means.”

He knew.

Amelia had spent her last year thinking about what would happen to Lorelai and Gemma after she was gone.

Maybe she had anticipated that Chadworth would remarry.

Maybe she had feared exactly the kind of person Sabina had become.

Quinn asked, “Did Amelia leave any private papers?”

“Letters.”

“Where?”

“Bank vault.”

“Any regarding guardianship?”

“I don’t know.”

Marcus looked at him.

“You never read them all?”

Chadworth looked away.

“I couldn’t.”

Rosamund’s expression softened.

“How many?”

“Twelve.”

“And you read?”

“Three.”

“Why stop?”

“Because she sounded alive.”

Silence.

Quinn said gently, “You may need to read the rest.”

Chadworth nodded.

The next morning, he went to the vault with Marcus.

The box held twelve cream envelopes in Amelia’s handwriting.

FOR LORELAI AT TEN.

FOR GEMMA AT TEN.

FOR CHADWORTH WHEN THE GIRLS ASK ABOUT ME.

FOR THEIR WEDDING DAYS.

FOR A BAD DAY.

FOR WHEN YOU THINK YOU’VE FAILED THEM.

His hand stopped on that one.

Marcus said nothing.

Then Chadworth found another.

FOR IF YOU EVER PLAN TO MARRY AGAIN.

He stared.

The envelope had never been opened.

His name was written beneath the line.

Chad,

please read this before you let anyone become part of our daughters’ home.

His hands began to shake.

Marcus turned away, giving him privacy without leaving.

Chadworth opened it.

The letter was only four pages.

He read slowly.

Halfway through, he sat down.

Marcus finally asked, “What?”

Chadworth could not answer.

He handed him the last page.

Amelia had written:

I am not asking you to stay alone forever.

I am asking you to remember that lonely men can mistake attention for love, and busy men can mistake efficiency for trust.

Anyone who loves you but resents the girls does not love you.

Anyone who competes with the people who protect them is not protecting you.

If the girls become quieter after someone enters their life, do not tell yourself they are adjusting.

Ask why.

If they tell you they are afraid, believe them first and investigate second.

And if you ever find yourself choosing between the comfort of an adult and the fear of a child, choose the child before you ask another question.

Chadworth covered his face.

Marcus sat opposite him.

“She knew you.”

“Yes.”

“She knew your weaknesses.”

“Yes.”

“She also believed you could correct them.”

Chadworth looked at the letter.

“I did exactly what she warned me not to do.”

“Yes.”

He looked at Marcus.

“Don’t make it softer.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Good.”

Marcus pointed to the final paragraph.

“There’s more.”

Chadworth read.

Amelia wrote that she had established a contingency trust outside the main Prescott structure.

Small compared with the family fortune.

Large enough to support the girls independently.

Its trustee was not Chadworth.

Not a bank.

Not a family lawyer.

A named protector would receive authority if concerns arose about a future guardian.

The name was missing from the copy.

A handwritten note said:

The identity is held separately so no one can pressure them.

Chadworth looked at Marcus.

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

“Voss’s father might have known.”

“And Elias may have found it.”

Chadworth’s blood went cold.

“If Sabina and Elias were trying to control the girls’ trusts…”

Marcus finished.

“They may also have been trying to find Amelia’s contingency trustee.”

Chadworth folded the letter carefully.

Then he looked at the envelope marked FOR WHEN YOU THINK YOU’VE FAILED THEM.

He did not open it.

Not yet.

He already knew he had.

What he did not know was whether Amelia had left behind the one person Sabina had been unable to remove.

Then his phone rang.

Detective Quinn.

“We have the Everlock warrant.”

Chadworth stood.

“And?”

“We opened Unit 317.”

“What did you find?”

A pause.

“Your late wife’s file.”

Chadworth stopped breathing.

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Quinn continued.

“And Rosamund’s name is all over it.”