Chapter 4 - The Demolition Notice
Ethan stepped onto the porch with his phone already recording.
The truck driver handed him a demolition notice. It was dated that morning and authorized by North Harbor Services, claiming the house was structurally unsafe.
“You have the wrong property,” Ethan said.
“Sir, I just drive the truck.”
“Then call whoever sent you.”
The driver did. Ten minutes later, his supervisor ordered him to leave. The notice had no municipal approval. Ethan photographed it and sent it to the local building office and the investigator handling Mara’s case.
Inside, June was packing photographs into a cardboard box.
“I told Evelyn this would happen.”
Mara helped her fold a wool blanket.
“Why didn’t you sell the place?”
“Because the house isn’t mine.”
June pointed to the ledger.
“It belongs to a trust Evelyn created for both her children.”
Ethan checked the deed. The owner was Bluebird Holdings, an entity he had seen on an old list of his mother’s assets. Charles had always described it as a failed investment.
He called the foundation’s chief accountant, Ruth Mercer.
“Can you meet me today?”
Ruth hesitated.
“Your father told us not to speak to you.”
“I’m the current foundation chairman.”
“Not anymore.”
Ethan went still.
Ruth explained that Charles had convened an emergency board meeting while Ethan was at the hospital. The board voted to suspend him pending an investigation into alleged misuse of charitable funds.
“What misuse?”
“A transfer to a personal account.”
“I didn’t make one.”
“I believe you,” Ruth said. “That’s why I’m calling from a pay phone.”
She agreed to meet at a church Christmas market. Ethan and Mara arrived separately. The square smelled of roasted chestnuts and wet evergreen. Children queued to visit Santa while Ruth sat alone beside a stall selling knitted mittens.
She slid a receipt across the table.
The transfer was for $480,000. It bore Ethan’s digital authorization, but the login originated from a computer in Charles’s private study.
“Can you prove that?” Ethan asked.
“Not without the original access logs.”
“Where are they?”
“On a backup server North Harbor installed.”
Mara looked at the receipt.
“Vanessa’s brother owns North Harbor.”
Ruth stared.
“Are you sure?”
Mara showed her a photograph of Vanessa celebrating her brother’s birthday at the mansion. Behind them hung a company banner bearing the same logo as the truck.
His name was Gregory Voss.
Ethan knew him as a consultant who had negotiated construction contracts for years. He had even attended Ethan’s engagement party.
Ruth covered her mouth.
“That explains the invoices.”
“Not everything,” Mara said.
She showed Ruth the photograph of Evelyn and Daniel Price.
Ruth’s face changed.
“He’s the foundation’s legal adviser.”
“And the man who hid my adoption file,” Mara replied.
That evening, Ethan returned to the mansion with a police escort to collect personal belongings. Vanessa stood in the entrance hall, wearing a white sweater and an expression of injured innocence.
“You made me look terrible,” she said.
“You did that yourself.”
“I apologized to Mara.”
“You sent her a message saying she’d regret talking.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re choosing a stranger over your family.”
Ethan held up the childhood photograph.
“She is my family.”
Vanessa glanced at it and went silent.
Charles appeared behind her.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“Then explain the forged transfer.”
Charles looked at the police officer.
“Family business.”
The officer answered, “Not if someone forged a financial authorization.”
Ethan collected his suitcase and left. At the gate, his phone received a message from an unknown number.
A photograph showed June’s blue house engulfed in smoke.
May you like
Underneath it were five words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET IT FALL.
