Chapter 8 - THE NIGHT THE GARDEN CLOSED
“My father ordered Eleanor removed?”
Vanessa stared at the account record as though the words might change if she looked long enough.
Sebastian placed it on the table.
“That's his handwriting, isn't it?”
Vanessa nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
“No. Frederick wouldn't—”
“He already admitted helping steal from Rosemary,” Hannah said quietly. “We need to know what else he did.”
Margaret sank into a chair.
For decades, she had believed her husband was weak but decent.
Now the evidence suggested something far worse.
Sebastian turned to Marco.
“Contact the investigators. They need to see these records before anyone else handles them.”
Marco nodded.
Vanessa stood motionless.
Hannah watched her.
For the first time, Vanessa seemed to understand what it meant to lose the story she'd always told herself about her family.
“Did he know?” Vanessa whispered.
Sebastian frowned.
“Know what?”
“That Eleanor was going to die.”
Nobody answered.
Anthony's fingers moved across his tablet.
ASK HIM.
Sebastian nodded.
“We will.”
Frederick had been transferred to an independent hospital that morning.
Two investigators were already reviewing his medical records and questioning the staff who controlled his medication.
By afternoon, he was alert enough to speak privately with them.
Sebastian, Hannah, Margaret, and Vanessa were allowed to visit afterward.
Hannah had rested for several hours before agreeing to come.
The physician had confirmed that her pregnancy remained stable.
Still, Sebastian insisted that she sit whenever she felt tired.
“You don't need to keep watching me,” she told him.
“I'm not watching you.”
She raised an eyebrow.
He almost smiled.
“All right. Perhaps a little.”
“My husband used to do that.”
The words surprised them both.
Sebastian's expression softened.
“What was his name?”
“Thomas.”
Hannah looked down at her wedding ring.
“He worked construction. He was funny, stubborn, and terrible at remembering where he put his keys.”
Sebastian smiled faintly.
“He sounds like someone I'd have liked.”
“He would have liked you too.”
Hannah's eyes grew wet.
“He was so excited about becoming a father.”
Sebastian didn't offer empty reassurance.
He simply said, “Your child will know how much Thomas loved them.”
Hannah nodded.
“I'm going to make sure of that.”
Inside Frederick's hospital room, Vanessa walked directly to her father.
She placed the account records before him.
“Dad, tell me these aren't yours.”
Frederick closed his eyes.
Vanessa's voice cracked.
“Please.”
Frederick looked at her.
“They are.”
Margaret began crying.
Sebastian stepped closer.
“Why did you order Eleanor removed?”
Frederick stared at the ceiling.
“Because she wouldn't sign the amended trust agreement.”
Hannah frowned.
“Why did you need her signature?”
“Eleanor controlled the trust during Anthony's lifetime. Daniel couldn't access the principal without her approval.”
“So you locked her away?” Sebastian asked.
Frederick shook his head.
“I instructed Victor to keep her at the estate until she agreed to reconsider.”
Anthony's warning echoed in Hannah's mind.
She found out what happened to Eleanor.
“Who locked the garden?” Hannah asked.
Frederick hesitated.
“Victor.”
Sebastian leaned forward.
“Did you know he would?”
Frederick swallowed.
“Yes.”
Margaret covered her face.
Vanessa stepped backward.
“My God.”
Frederick's voice shook.
“I thought they would frighten her into signing. I didn't know Daniel planned to start a fire at the lake house.”
Sebastian frowned.
“Why burn the lake house?”
“To destroy the duplicate financial records. Daniel believed Rosemary had hidden them there.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Then how did Eleanor die?”
Frederick began trembling.
“I didn't know she was still in the winter garden.”
Sebastian's expression hardened.
“What do you mean?”
“The heating system failed that night. A winter storm came through. Victor had locked the outer doors, and the old emergency release had been disconnected during renovations.”
Hannah felt sick.
“Eleanor was trapped in the cold?”
Frederick nodded.
“She was sixty-eight. She had a heart condition.”
Sebastian stared.
“You left my grandmother there?”
“I didn't know Victor had left.”
“You ordered her confined.”
Frederick lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Hannah looked toward the window.
Outside, the afternoon sunlight fell across a row of bare trees.
Her mother had returned to the estate that night.
She'd tried to help Eleanor.
And afterward, she'd been carried away unconscious.
“What happened to Rosemary?” Hannah asked.
Frederick's voice broke.
“She found the garden door locked. She tried to break the glass. Daniel stopped her.”
“How?”
Frederick closed his eyes.
“They argued. She slipped on the icy stone steps and struck her head.”
Hannah gripped the chair.
“So my mother wasn't attacked?”
“I didn't see the fall. That's what Daniel told me. Margaret arrived afterward.”
Sebastian leaned closer.
“And Eleanor?”
Frederick was crying now.
“By the time Anthony returned, she was gone.”
Hannah whispered, “Gone where?”
Frederick looked at Sebastian.
“Victor had taken her to the hospital. She died before Anthony could reach her.”
Anthony had spent twenty-six years believing Eleanor's death was an accident at the lake house.
But the official death certificate should have raised questions.
Sebastian asked the obvious one.
“Who changed the records?”
Frederick stared at his hands.
“I did.”
Vanessa sat heavily beside the bed.
“You let Grandfather mourn a lie for twenty-six years.”
Frederick looked at his daughter.
“I convinced myself the truth would destroy everyone.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“It already did.”
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Then Hannah asked, “Where did the money go?”
Frederick swallowed.
“Most of it stayed in the businesses. Some paid debts. Some went to the Caldwell company.”
“And the rest?”
He looked at Vanessa.
“Victor moved it.”
Sebastian frowned.
“Where?”
Frederick's eyes filled with fear.
“I don't know. That's what I was trying to discover before I was injured.”
Margaret took his hand.
“You were pushed because you tried to fix it?”
Frederick nodded.
“I found evidence Victor was transferring the remaining assets into an offshore account. I confronted him.”
“Did he push you?” Sebastian asked.
Frederick shook his head.
“No. His driver did.”
Sebastian looked at Marco.
“Make sure investigators have that name.”
Frederick reached toward Hannah.
She hesitated, then allowed him to touch her hand.
“Your mother deserved better.”
“Yes,” Hannah replied. “She did.”
“I can never give her back what I took.”
“No. You can't.”
Hannah withdrew her hand.
“But you can stop protecting the people who hurt her.”
Frederick nodded.
“I will.”
That evening, investigators received Frederick's recorded statement, the recovered account records, and the cassette from the winter garden.
Victor Hale was located at his office and detained for questioning.
But while reviewing the old records, an investigator discovered a discrepancy.
The original trust had not merely allocated money to Rosemary.
It had given her a permanent ownership interest in the Castellano estate's legitimate businesses.
That interest had passed to her child upon her death.
Hannah.
Sebastian sat beside her as the investigator explained.
“You aren't simply a possible beneficiary,” he said. “Under the trust terms, you may already hold a substantial ownership interest, subject to verification and court review.”
Hannah stared.
“I don't want to take anyone's home.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“You're not taking anything. You're asking for what your mother was promised.”
The investigator continued.
“There's one complication.”
Sebastian frowned.
“What?”
“The most recent transfer documents show that someone attempted to sell Hannah's inherited interest six weeks ago.”
Hannah stared at him.
“How could anyone sell something I didn't know I owned?”
“By using a forged authorization.”
Sebastian leaned forward.
“Who signed it?”
The investigator turned the document toward them.
At the bottom was Hannah Miller's name.
Beneath it was an address in Hartford.
Her home address.
Hannah's blood ran cold.
Then she saw the date.
The document had been signed five months earlier.
The day after her husband's funeral.
Sebastian looked at her.
“Do you recognize the witness?”
Hannah studied the signature.
Her face went pale.
“Yes.”
“Who is it?”
May you like
She looked at Sebastian.
“The man who told me Thomas died in a construction accident.”
