Chapter 8 - The Camera Recorded Everything
I woke to Daniel holding my hand.
For several seconds, I couldn’t remember why.
Then my head exploded with pain.
The staircase returned.
Stella.
The box.
Falling.
A nurse noticed I was awake and called the doctor.
Daniel’s face crumpled.
“You’re here.”
My throat barely worked.
“How long?”
“Four days.”
Then I saw Stella behind him.
Two police officers stood near her.
She looked terrified.
But she tried to smile.
“Ivy, thank God. Tell them what happened.”
Detective Pike stepped forward.
“Ms. Carter, don’t answer anything until your doctor clears you.”
Then he placed the tablet on the bed.
“The camera recorded everything.”
Stella’s face went white.
The video played.
I was standing with the box.
Stella grabbed it.
I pulled away.
She shoved me.
Then—
Diane stepped forward.
Her hand struck my shoulder.
Not hard.
But enough.
I lost balance.
Stella hadn’t caused the final fall alone.
Diane had.
The video continued.
After I struck the floor, Stella looked down.
She did not immediately call for help.
Instead, she grabbed Samuel’s papers.
Then told Diane:
“Take the Greyhaven file.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“You left her there?”
Stella snapped:
“I panicked!”
The recording captured more.
Diane crying.
Stella telling her:
“If Ivy wakes up, we lose everything.”
Then Stella called an attorney.
Not 911.
Daniel did that.
Detective Pike stopped the footage.
Diane collapsed into a chair.
Stella stared at me.
“You don’t understand.”
I believed her.
Not the excuse.
The statement.
There was still something I didn’t understand.
Why had my mother’s photograph been in the mansion?
Why was my name in Greyhaven?
Why did Stella fear the file enough to risk prison?
The detective asked if I wanted to press charges immediately.
I looked at Stella.
Then Diane.
Then Daniel.
“No.”
Stella blinked.
Daniel looked stunned.
Pike frowned.
“I’m not saying no forever,” I said weakly.
“Then what do you want?”
“One private meeting.”
“With whom?”
“Stella.”
Daniel immediately objected.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Please.”
He understood I was not forgiving her.
I was investigating.
Stella stared at me.
“What do you think you know?”
I whispered:
“Enough to know you didn’t start Greyhaven.”
Her face changed.
I continued.
“My father did.”
Stella’s lips parted.
Then I said the sentence I had never intended to reveal so early:
“And before he died, he made me the legal successor to the trust.”
Daniel went pale.
Stella whispered:
“That’s impossible.”
I looked at her.
May you like
“No.”
“What’s impossible is that you spent twelve years searching for control of something that was transferred to a twelve-year-old girl before you even knew she had it.”
