Chapter 7 - The Name She Wasn’t Supposed to Know
Iris’s name had been chosen privately.
Nathan and I decided on it during my second trimester.
We told no one.
Not even Rachel.
When family asked, we said we were still deciding.
Yet the trust paperwork filed five months before Iris’s birth named:
Iris Bennett.
Correct spelling.
Correct surname.
Expected relationship:
Granddaughter.
I called Nathan.
“Did you tell my mother her name?”
“No.”
“Anyone?”
“No.”
“Think.”
“Elena, no.”
He heard my fear.
“What happened?”
I told him.
His face changed.
“Who drafted the trust?”
Law firm:
Parker, Sloan & Gray.
Henry Sloan’s firm.
I called Henry immediately.
He sounded confused.
“My firm didn’t create that.”
“It has your letterhead.”
“Send it.”
Five minutes later:
“Forged.”
Another forged document.
But this one was stranger.
Why forge a trust that hadn’t yet taken effect?
Why include Iris?
Henry examined the metadata.
The PDF had been generated on a home computer registered to Rachel.
My sister.
I called her.
She denied it.
Then stopped.
“Mom used my laptop sometimes.”
Convenient.
“Rachel, did you know Iris’s name?”
“No.”
“I swear.”
I believed her.
Which left Mom.
But Diane had another problem.
She hated the name Iris when we finally announced it.
She said it sounded “pretentious.”
If she already knew months earlier, that reaction had been theater.
Why pretend not to know?
The answer came from Nathan.
“Maybe she wasn’t supposed to know she knew.”
I looked at him.
He continued.
“What if someone else was using Rachel’s laptop?”
Rachel’s husband, Jason.
The man she had divorced six years earlier.
Father of Penny and Trevor.
Rachel rarely mentioned him except to say he had abandoned them financially.
But some of my early transfers had been labeled Jason settlement.
I called Rachel.
“When did you last speak to Jason?”
“Years.”
“Really?”
“Elena—”
“When?”
She whispered:
“Last month.”
Another lie.
Jason had resurfaced after discovering Diane controlled the children’s accounts.
He threatened legal action.
Mom convinced Rachel to keep it quiet.
“What does he know about me?”
“Probably everything.”
“Why?”
“Mom used to talk to him about your money.”
Of course she did.
Then Rachel said something strange.
“He always said Mom wasn’t stealing because she needed money.”
“What did he say?”
“He said she was moving it.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
I found Jason’s number through an old contact.
He answered on the third ring.
“Elena?”
“You know why I’m calling.”
“I hoped eventually you would.”
“Why is my mother moving my money?”
A long pause.
“Because your father made her promise to.”
I closed my eyes.
Another dead man entering the room.
“What promise?”
Jason exhaled.
“To keep you funded if the Army ever sent you somewhere you couldn’t come back from.”
I stopped.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
May you like
Then:
“Ask Diane what happened the night your father died.”
