I recognized the address immediately.
It was the small lake property Leon and I had purchased when Toby was six.
We hadn’t lived there.
It was a modest piece of land with a little cabin.
Leon loved that place.
He used to take Toby there every summer.
They would fish in the morning, burn marshmallows at night, and sleep in sleeping bags even when the weather was warm.
After Leon died, I had considered selling it.
But I never did.
It was worth more now than either of us had imagined.
I turned the page.
Another deed.
Then a bank statement.
Then a legal letter.
Then another document.
My breathing changed.
There was an account I didn’t recognize.
I read the name twice.
Huitt Family Preservation Trust.
I had never heard of it.
Under the account title was a date.
September 14, 2014.
Two months before Leon died.
I kept reading.
The trust contained the lake property.
A small investment account.
And something else.
A second property.
My house.
I stared at the document.
“No.”
I read it again.
My home wasn’t technically owned by me.
It belonged to the trust.
But there was more.
A handwritten note was attached to the back.
I recognized Leon’s handwriting immediately.
If you’re reading this, something has gone wrong.
My throat tightened.
I continued.
I didn’t create this because I didn’t trust you. I created it because I knew people would eventually try to take advantage of you.
I stopped.
My eyes filled with tears.
Then I read the next line.
Especially after I’m gone.
I pressed the paper flat against the table.
Leon had known.
Not exactly what would happen.
But he had known that someone might eventually try to control what belonged to our family.
The next paragraph was shorter.
Toby is the beneficiary, but he cannot access the trust until certain conditions are met.
I frowned.
“What conditions?”
I turned the page.
There were several.
Education.
Marriage.
Age.
And one final condition.
I read it three times.
The principal cannot be distributed if the beneficiary is under financial coercion or acting under the direction of another person.
My heart began pounding.
There was a reason for that clause.
I knew there was.
I kept reading.
Then I found a name.
Trustee: Harold Mercer.
I remembered him.
Leon had mentioned Harold many times.
An old friend.
An attorney.
A man who had helped Leon establish his first business.
I had assumed Harold had retired years ago.
But underneath his name was a current phone number.
I picked up my phone.
Then stopped.
Before calling him, I turned to the final pages.
There were copies of emails.
Printed messages.
Financial records.
And one document dated three weeks before Leon died.
It was a letter from Harold to Leon.
The first sentence made my stomach drop.
Leon, I am concerned about the requests coming from your son.
I froze.
My son?
I read further.
Toby is young and may not understand the consequences, but someone is clearly encouraging him to ask questions about the trust.
I sat back.
Toby had been twelve.
Who could have been encouraging him?
Then I saw another name.
Sherry Lamb.
I couldn’t breathe.
I kept reading.
The letter didn’t accuse her of stealing anything.
It didn’t say she had committed a crime.
It simply documented something Leon had noticed.
Sherry had repeatedly asked questions about the lake property.
She wanted to know who owned it.
She wanted to know whether Leon had life insurance.
She wanted to know whether Toby would inherit anything.
At the time, Sherry wasn’t even related to us.
She had been Paige’s mother.
Paige and Toby were only teenagers.
Why would she have been asking those questions?
I flipped the page.
There was a handwritten note from Leon.
Don’t confront her.
Then:
If she ever becomes involved in our finances, contact Harold immediately.
My hands went numb.
I looked at the clock.
9:17 a.m.
I called the number.
The phone rang twice.
Then a man’s voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Harold?”
There was a pause.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Mara Huitt.”
Silence.
Then I heard him inhale sharply.
“Mara?”
“Yes.”
“I haven’t heard from you in years.”
“I know.”
My voice cracked.
“I found the blue folder.”
Another silence.
This one was longer.
Finally, he said:
“Then you need to come see me.”
“Why?”
“Because there are things Leon didn’t want me to explain over the phone.”
My heart sank.
“Harold, what happened?”
He exhaled.
“I think someone has been trying to access the trust.”
I looked at the bank notification on my laptop.
“Someone tried this morning.”
His voice changed.
“Did you authorize anything?”
“No.”
“Did Toby?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then don’t ask him yet.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because if he doesn’t know, you could scare him.”
“And if he does?”
“Then you need to know why.”
I looked down at Leon’s letter.
“Harold…”
“Yes?”
“Did Leon know this would happen?”
Harold didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said:
“Your husband knew people could become very different when money was involved.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“He left me a note.”
“What did it say?”
I read it aloud.
“Don’t let them touch the blue folder.”
Harold went silent again.
Then he whispered:
“He knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That one day you might need it.”
I closed my eyes.
“Can you meet me today?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“My office.”
I wrote down the address.
Before hanging up, I asked one final question.
“Harold?”
“Yes?”
“Did Leon ever believe Toby was involved in this?”
“No.”
His answer came immediately.
“Your husband loved your son more than anything.”
I swallowed.
“Then why did he write about him?”
“Because Leon didn’t fear Toby.”
Harold paused.
“He feared who might influence Toby.”
I ended the call.
For several minutes, I sat completely still.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from Toby.
Mom, can I come over? We need to talk.
I stared at the screen.
Before I could reply, another message appeared.
Please don’t tell Paige yet.
I felt a chill move down my back.
Then a third message.
I found something last night.
I called him immediately.
He didn’t answer.
I called again.
Still nothing.
I sent:
Where are you?
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
Finally, his response came.
I’m at Sherry’s house.
My stomach dropped.
I typed:
Why?
His answer came almost immediately.
Because I think she lied to me.
I stood up so quickly that the chair fell backward.
I grabbed my purse.
The blue folder went inside.
I locked the house.
And drove straight toward Harold’s office.
But halfway there, my phone rang.
It was Toby.
I answered.
“Toby?”
His voice was barely audible.
“Mom…”
“What happened?”
“I found the original guest list.”
My grip tightened around the steering wheel.
“What about it?”
“It’s not seventy-two people.”
“What?”
“The first list had twenty-four.”
“I know.”
“No, Mom.”
His breathing was uneven.
“It had twenty-four names…”
He stopped.
“Toby?”
“There were only twenty-three.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
He whispered:
“Your name was number twenty-four.”
I couldn’t speak.
“And someone crossed it out.”
My heart stopped.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Toby, where are you?”
He didn’t answer.
“Toby!”
Then I heard something in the background.
A woman’s voice.
Sherry.
“What are you doing with that phone?”
The call ended.
I pulled my car to the side of the road.
My hands were shaking.
The blue folder sat on the passenger seat.
For twelve years, I had believed it contained the past.
Now I was beginning to understand.
It contained the reason my present was falling apart.
And somewhere inside Sherry’s house, my forty-year-old son had just discovered something someone had gone to great lengths to hide.
I started the car again.
This time, I wasn’t going to Harold’s office first.
I was going to Sherry’s house.
Because whatever was happening inside that house had already gone far beyond a birthday dinner.
And I was done waiting for someone else to tell me the truth.
PART 5
I didn’t knock.
I got out of my car, walked straight to Sherry’s front door, and rang the bell once.
Then again.
No answer.
I could see movement through the curtains.
Someone was inside.
I rang a third time.
Finally, the door opened.
Sherry stood there.
She had changed out of her gold jacket.
Her face looked completely different now.
There was no anger.
No confidence.
Only fear.
“Mara.”
“Where is Toby?”
She didn’t answer.
I stepped forward.
“Where is my son?”
“He left.”
“When?”
“About ten minutes ago.”
I looked behind her.
“Where did he go?”
“I don’t know.”
I knew she was lying.
Not because I had proof.
Because after years of watching Sherry manipulate conversations, I had learned something.
She lied with too much detail when she was nervous.
I stepped inside.
“You need to leave.”
“No.”
“Mara—”
“I said no.”
She stared at me.
Then I heard something from the hallway.
A door closing.
I turned.
“Who else is here?”
“Nobody.”
I walked toward the hallway.
Sherry grabbed my arm.
“You can’t just walk into my house.”
I pulled away.
“Where is Toby?”
“He’s not here.”
I opened the first door.
Empty.
Second.
Empty.
Then I reached the last door.
Locked.
I turned around.
“What’s in there?”
“Storage.”
“Open it.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“Then I’ll call the police.”
Her face changed.
She reached into her pocket.
For a moment, I thought she was going to unlock the door.
Instead, she whispered:
“You don’t understand what you’re doing.”
“I understand that my son called me from your house and then disappeared.”
“He wasn’t kidnapped.”
“Then where is he?”
She looked away.
I stepped closer.
“Sherry.”
She finally gave me the key.
The room was small.
Boxes covered the walls.
Old furniture.
Christmas decorations.
Tax records.
Nothing unusual.
Then I noticed a cardboard box sitting on a shelf.
It had one word written across the top.
HUITT.
I pulled it down.
Sherry moved toward me.
“Don’t.”
I opened it.
Inside were copies of documents.
Bank statements.
Property records.
Photographs.
Old correspondence.
And a folder containing the original guest list.
I pulled it out.
There were twenty-four names.
The last one was mine.
My name had been crossed out in black ink.
Beside it was written:
Replace with Vivian.
Vivian.
Sherry’s sister.
I looked at her.
“Who changed this?”
She said nothing.
I turned the page.
There was another note.
Mara must not attend. She will ask questions.
My stomach turned.
“Who wrote this?”
Still nothing.
I opened another folder.
And then I saw something that made everything click.
There were copies of the trust documents.
The same trust Leon had created.
But these weren’t from twelve years ago.
They were recent.
Very recent.
Someone had been requesting information about the trust.
I looked at the dates.
Three months ago.
Two months ago.
Six weeks ago.
Then two weeks ago.
The final request was dated four days earlier.
I stared at Sherry.
“You’ve been trying to access Leon’s trust.”
“No.”
“The documents are right here.”
“I didn’t do that.”
“Then who did?”
She started crying.
Not dramatically.
Not the way she usually did when she wanted people to feel sorry for her.
These were real tears.
“I never meant for it to go this far.”
I felt my stomach drop.
“What did you mean to do?”
She sat down on an old wooden chair.
Then she covered her face.
“It was supposed to be simple.”
“What was?”
“The property.”
I waited.
She lowered her hands.
“Paige and Toby are struggling.”
I stared at her.
“Toby owns a successful company.”
“He did.”
“What does that mean?”
“He lost money.”
“How much?”
She looked at the floor.
“More than you know.”
My heart sank.
“When?”
“Last year.”
“How much?”
“About $180,000.”
I stared at her.
“Debt?”
She nodded.
“He borrowed against the business.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he didn’t want you to know.”
That sounded like Toby.
Pride had always been his weakness.
But something still didn’t make sense.
“What does that have to do with the trust?”
Sherry looked at me.