Chapter 4 - Cordelia Finds The Steel Door
Three days after the party, Cordelia called a contractor.
She wanted a wine cellar expanded beneath the western wing.
The contractor found a reinforced wall.
Behind decorative stone sat a steel door with four locks and a brass
plate.
VAULT FOUR — CUSTODIAL ACCESS ONLY.
Cordelia called Flynn.
He called the transfer attorney.
The attorney told him to read Schedule C.
For the first time, Flynn actually did.
His champagne confidence disappeared.
He called Sloan.
She did not answer.
He called Phoebe.
Phoebe did.
“What did my wife transfer to me?”
“A lake house.”
“And a vault.”
“The vault was disclosed.”
“What’s inside?”
“You accepted custodianship. The independent trustee will attend the
opening.”
Flynn became furious.
He accused Sloan of trapping him.
Phoebe remained calm.
“You were represented by counsel. You requested the property. You signed
voluntarily.”
Flynn’s own divorce lawyer had warned him to obtain a full title review.
He had refused because he feared Sloan might withdraw the offer.
Greed had created speed.
Speed had created ignorance.
Cordelia demanded they simply transfer the house back.
Phoebe explained that Flynn could propose a transfer, but the trust
covenant required the current custodian to complete the preservation
inventory first.
He could not pass an unopened evidence vault from owner to owner
indefinitely.
Augustus had anticipated that.
Cordelia shouted that the arrangement was absurd.
Then the independent trustee arrived.
Her name was Naomi Mercer.
Sloan had never met her.
Flynn recognized the surname.
“Are you related to Sloan?”
Naomi answered:
“To Augustus.”
“How?”
“He was my father.”
Flynn went silent.
Sloan had always believed her mother was Augustus’s only child.
Apparently, she had been wrong.
Naomi was Augustus’s daughter too.
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And judging by Phoebe’s expression, this was another secret Sloan had
never been told.
