Chapter 3 - What Chloe Had FoundChloe looked smaller in a hospital bed.
Her left arm was immobilized.
Her face was bruised.
Doctors had confirmed a pelvic fracture that would require weeks of recovery but not the catastrophic outcome we had feared.
I stood at the door.
“I’m sorry.”
She looked at me.
“For what?”
“You know.”
“The fake Birkin?”
I nodded.
Her eyes hardened.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew something was on the stairs.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know I’d fall?”
“I knew there was a risk.”
Silence.
I forced myself not to soften it.
“I was angry. I should have warned you. I didn’t.”
Chloe turned her face toward the window.
For years I had wanted someone in Julian’s family to admit wrongdoing without excuses.
Now I understood how hard it felt from this side.
“I’m sorry.”
She still did not look at me.
“Why were you carrying the policy?”
That made her turn back.
“Because I was going to confront Julian.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“About insurance?”
“About Dad’s trust.”
Thomas Vance.
Julian and Chloe’s father.
He died six years earlier after a stroke.
I knew he had left some money.
I did not know details.
Chloe did not either until recently.
Thomas created a trust for her.
Initial value:
$2.9 million.
Julian became temporary co trustee because Chloe was sixteen when their father died.
Eleanor was distribution adviser.
At twenty one, Chloe should have received independent statements and partial control.
She never did.
Julian told her investments had performed badly.
Then a bank employee accidentally copied her on a compliance request.
Current trust value according to internal bank record:
$412,000.
Chloe panicked.
“Two and a half million dollars doesn’t disappear because the market was bad.”
No.
She started searching Julian’s home office.
Found insurance documents.
One policy on me.
One on herself.
Then a ledger showing transfers from something called Vance Family Continuity LLC.
She photographed everything.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She laughed and winced from pain.
“Because I hated you.”
Fair.
“Why?”
“Because Mom told me you were trying to take Julian away from us.”
I stared.
“She said you controlled every dollar he made. She said you were going to fire him after the baby came.”
“None of that was true.”
“I know that now.”
Then:
“Julian told me you refused to let him pay me from family money.”
“The corporate card?”
She nodded.
“I thought it was his company.”
My stomach turned.
The handbags.
Trips.
Restaurants.
Julian had told Chloe Harper Meridian money was his.
Eleanor too.
I had been financing the illusion that they were wealthy independently.
Then Chloe whispered:
“I found the policy three days ago.”
“Yours?”
“Yes.”
“Did you ask Julian?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the beneficiary company had the same address as the company receiving money from my trust.”
Vance Property Services.
The canister company.
My heartbeat changed.
“You’re sure?”
She nodded.
“Dad’s trust transferred almost eight hundred thousand dollars to it.”
“For what?”
“Real estate investment.”
“Did you approve?”
“No.”
“Did the trust allow it?”
“I don’t know.”
Then she looked at me.
“Victoria, the policy on me isn’t the worst part.”
“What is?”
She swallowed.
“There’s one on Mom too.”
I stared.
“Eleanor?”
“Nine hundred thousand.”
Same owner?
Yes.
Same beneficiary?
Vance Family Continuity LLC.
Three women connected to Julian.
Three insurance policies.
Then why was Eleanor trying to kill me?
Chloe answered the question I had not spoken.
“Because she thinks yours is the only one.”
I went still.
“What?”
“Julian didn’t tell her about ours.”
The cruelty shifted.
Eleanor believed she was helping her son collect on me.
She had no idea her son had quietly placed financial value on her death too.
Then Chloe said:
“You think Mom is the monster.”
“She tried to send me down a marble staircase.”
“She is.”
Chloe’s eyes filled.
“But Julian taught her what she thought she was doing.”
Before she could explain further, the nurse entered.
Medication.
Surgery preparation.
I stood.
Chloe caught my sleeve with her good hand.
“Don’t let him get into Dad’s trust records.”
“He already has.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“The original ones.”
“Where?”
“Dad’s bank.”
Then:
“Box 219.”
May you like
The same bank where Thomas Vance had stored his estate papers.
And according to Chloe, Julian had been trying to access it for months.
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