Chapter 5 - THE ORIGINAL WILL
Julian had stolen the original will from Martin’s archive months earlier.
Thomas Reed provided the access code.
The document left eighty-two million dollars to Vanessa, with Julian as investment manager.
It was valid when signed.
I had trusted them both.
The emergency amendment revoked it, but Julian planned to challenge capacity.
If the amendment disappeared and I died before final ruling, litigation could freeze the estate for years.
During that time, Julian could continue charging management fees.
Death remained profitable even without immediate inheritance.
Martin moved all originals into federal evidence.
The court issued arrest warrants.
Julian disappeared.
Cross disappeared.
Richard disappeared.
Thomas Reed surrendered.
He asked for a deal.
He admitted approving false guardianships.
He admitted warning Vanessa about the hidden camera.
He admitted preparing my transfer order.
He claimed he never knew about murder.
Priya asked why he continued after Adrian Blake’s death.
He said, “I believed Vanessa.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That Adrian overdosed himself.”
“Did you verify it?”
“No.”
He had chosen convenience over truth.
Then helped build years of crime.
His cooperation gave us Julian’s safe apartment.
Inside were passports.
Cash.
Medication vials.
And one live monitor.
My hospital room.
Elise’s apartment.
Claire Brooks’s ICU room.
They were still watching us.
A message arrived on the monitor.
JULIAN: ARTHUR SIGNS THE RELEASE OR CLAIRE DOESN’T WAKE UP.
Claire Brooks lay unconscious under guard.
How could Julian harm her?
Cross still had hospital access through a consulting credential.
The same network.
The release asked me to withdraw accusations and restore Vanessa’s inheritance.
I refused.
Then Claire Brooks’s ventilator alarmed.
A nurse found the settings changed remotely.
Megan caught it in time.
Cross’s login had accessed the system.
The hospital shut down external control.
Claire stabilized.
Julian’s threat failed.
Then Vanessa requested to speak with me from federal custody.
She had been arrested after the warehouse rescue.
We met through glass.
She wore no makeup.
No green lace dress.
No red handbag.
“Julian will kill me,” she said.
“You planned to kill me.”
“I never wanted you dead.”
“You toasted my death.”
“I wanted the money before Richard took everything.”
“That sentence does not help you.”
She looked away.
Vanessa described her childhood.
Richard Cross was her stepfather.
He controlled her mother.
Used medical debt.
Guardianships.
Threats.
Claire Brooks tried to expose him.
Vanessa stayed.
At first from fear.
Then because the system rewarded her.
She married Adrian under Richard’s direction.
Adrian discovered the fraud.
Vanessa increased his medication to keep him calm.
He died.
She buried the truth.
After that, there was no return.
“Why marry me?” I asked.
“You were supposed to be easy.”
“Old?”
“Lonely.”
That hurt because it was true.
After my first wife died, I lived mostly through work.
Vanessa entered through a hospital charity.
She listened.
Remembered dates.
Made loneliness feel visible.
I loved her.
Or the person she performed.
“Did any part become real?”
She cried.
“Yes.”
“Which part?”
“I don’t know.”
That was the first honest answer she gave me.
She offered to testify against Julian, Cross, Richard, and Reed.
No immunity.
Only protection.
Prosecutors agreed to consider cooperation.
She revealed Julian’s next location.
A private airfield.
He planned to leave with Dr. Cross.
Richard had already crossed into Canada.
Federal agents surrounded the hangar.
Julian held a medical cooler.
Inside were blood samples, sedatives, and falsified tissue records.
Cross carried a gun.
They had planned to fake Julian’s death using another person’s remains.
The same method used for Claire Brooks.
Agents ordered surrender.
Cross pointed the gun at Julian.
“You caused this.”
Julian laughed.
“You prescribed it.”
Their alliance ended.
Cross fired.
Julian fell.
Agents took Cross down.
Julian survived.
The cooler spilled open.
Inside was a sealed vial labeled A. VANCE.
My blood.
They had collected it while I was unconscious.
Why?
Priya found the answer in a second forged document.
A posthumous paternity acknowledgment.
It claimed Vanessa was pregnant with my child.
If I died, the unborn child would inherit.
Vanessa was not pregnant.
But Cross had stored my blood to fabricate testing later.
A fictional heir.
A new path to the estate.
Then Elise said, “What if they already did?”
We all turned.
She had found a payment from Vanessa to a fertility clinic.
Date: six months earlier.
Procedure: embryo creation.
My genetic material had been used without consent.
Somewhere, an embryo existed.
May you like
Maybe more than one.
My body had become another asset in the inheritance scheme.
