Chapter 4 - THE VANCE TRUST FUND
By midnight, rain was heavy against the windows of Detective Jackson's safehouse in downtown Charleston.
Ethan lay sleeping peacefully on the sofa under a plush fleece blanket, snoring softly for the first time in months.
Detective Jackson laid out three thick paper dossiers across the wooden dining table.
"Eleanor Vance doesn't just want control over your family, Nora," Jackson explained, tapping a financial document. "She's fighting for Ethan’s legal trust."
"What trust?" Nora asked, holding a mug of warm black coffee. "My late husband didn't leave a massive fortune."
"Your husband didn't, but his grandfather did," Jackson revealed, sliding a copy of a 1994 land deed across the table. "Ethan is the sole beneficiary of fifty thousand acres of timberland in Montana worth forty million dollars."
Nora stared at the paper in complete disbelief. "Eleanor told me the Montana land was sold decades ago."
"She lied," Jackson said firmly. "Under the terms of the trust, if Ethan is deemed mentally unfit or declared a ward of the estate, control reverts entirely to Eleanor."
"That's why she chained him," Nora realized, her blood running cold. "She was trying to break his mind so she could claim he was insane."
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"And that's not the worst part," Jackson added, turning over another file. "The baby Chloe was holding... that child was registered at a private clinic two months ago under your name."
Nora’s coffee mug slipped from her fingers, shattering against the hardwood floor.
