Chapter 9 - Forty-Nine Percent.
Clara did not deny the warning.
That frightened Emma more than denial would have.
"Why did my mother tell me not to trust you?"
Clara sat down again.
For the first time since Emma met her, the attorney looked old.
"Because I made a decision twenty-two years ago that Laura never forgave."
"What decision?"
"I gave Harrison Hale a copy of Evelyn's legal challenge before it was filed."
Sloane stared at her.
"You tipped him off."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Clara folded her hands tightly.
"Because I was twenty-seven, drowning in law school debt, and convinced Harrison was offering me a career rather than buying my loyalty."
Emma felt disgust rise in her.
"How much?"
"Ten thousand dollars and a position at his firm's outside counsel."
"You sold my grandmother for ten thousand dollars."
Clara looked down.
"Yes."
The simple answer made the room colder.
"Did that have anything to do with Thomas Cole dying?"
Sloane asked.
Clara's head snapped up.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"I gave Harrison documents, not Thomas's schedule."
Her voice shook.
"I did not know anyone was in danger."
Emma held up Laura's letter.
"Why did my mother think you might still be involved?"
"Because I never told her I spent the next twenty years trying to undo what I did."
"That sounds convenient."
"It is also true."
Clara opened another drawer and placed a thick folder on the desk.
"I drafted the current trust structure for Evelyn after Laura left town."
Emma stared at her.
"You wrote the thirty-day condition?"
"Yes."
"Why would my grandmother ever trust you again?"
"She did not."
Clara gave a humorless smile.
"She supervised every word and kept three independent copies with three different people."
"Where is the original deed?"
"I do not know."
Emma did not believe her.
She folded Laura's letter and returned it to the blue envelope.
"Then we will find it without you."
Sloane followed her toward the door.
Clara called after them.
"Emma."
Emma stopped but did not turn.
"If Laura warned you about me, she may also have told you where Thomas hid the deed."
Emma looked back.
"She didn't."
Clara studied her face as if trying to decide whether that was true.
Emma left before the attorney could ask again.
Outside, Sloane smiled faintly.
"You lied well."
Emma pulled the letter from her purse.
"I did not lie."
She turned the page over.
A line written along the bottom edge was visible only when the paper was held toward the sun.
THE CHAPEL KEEPS WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT.
Sloane stared.
"Briarstone had a chapel?"
"Apparently."
They returned to the mansion before noon.
Mason's black SUV was parked near the gate.
Emma's stomach tightened.
"You called him."
Sloane looked innocent.
"I sent one text."
"You told me you would not."
"I said I liked you."
Sloane got out of the Jeep.
"I did not say I was obedient."
Mason approached them.
He looked at Emma first.
"Are you okay?"
"No thanks to you."
"Sloane said you went to Hale's warehouse."
"Sloane talks too much."
"You could have been arrested."
"By the deputy who stole my suitcase?"
Mason stopped.
Emma held up her phone.
"I recorded Grant ordering him to make my occupancy impossible."
Mason's anger shifted into concentration.
"Send it to me."
"No."
"Emma."
"I am done handing you evidence and hoping you tell me what you are doing with it."
Sloane stepped between them.
"Can we save the marriage fight until after we find Dad's deed?"
Mason stared at her.
"What deed?"
Emma watched his face carefully.
For once, he appeared genuinely surprised.
They told him about Laura's letter, but Emma did not mention Clara's confession.
Mason led them through the east wing to a room beneath a collapsed section of roof.
The plaster had fallen away, exposing a narrow arched doorway bricked shut decades earlier.
"This was the chapel," he said.
"How do you know?"
"My father showed me old plans when I was a kid."
Emma folded her arms.
"Of course he did."
Mason accepted the criticism without comment.
They spent an hour removing loose bricks carefully.
Behind the wall was a tiny stone room with a rotting altar, two broken benches, and a narrow stained-glass window almost completely covered by vines.
Nothing looked large enough to hide a deed.
Sloane checked beneath the benches.
Mason examined the walls.
Emma stood in front of the altar.
The floor tiles formed a simple pattern of black crosses against cream stone.
One tile near the center was reversed.
She knelt.
"Here."
Mason used a flat pry bar to lift the tile.
Beneath it was a shallow metal box wrapped in oilcloth.
Sloane whispered, "Dad."
Mason did not speak.
Emma opened the box.
Inside were several original documents, a small ledger, and a sealed deed packet marked BRIARSTONE HOLDING TRUST.
The paper smelled old but remained dry.
Emma read the first page.
Her grandmother's name appeared beside Thomas Cole's.
Sloane leaned over her shoulder.
"Why is Dad listed as a beneficiary?"
Mason suddenly went very still.
Emma noticed.
"You know."
"Emma—"
"You know what this says."
Mason did not answer.
She turned the page.
The trust divided beneficial ownership after Evelyn's death.
Fifty-one percent would pass to the surviving descendant of Laura Reed after the occupancy requirement.
Forty-nine percent would pass to the surviving descendants of Thomas Cole.
Emma looked at Sloane.
Then at Mason.
"You own almost half of Briarstone."
Sloane looked stunned.
"I did not know."
Emma kept her eyes on Mason.
"But you did."
His silence was enough.
"How long?"
Mason's face tightened.
"Six months."
Emma laughed softly because otherwise she might have screamed.
"Six months."
"I was going to tell you."
"Before or after the property became worth twelve million dollars?"
"Emma."
She stepped away from him.
"You did not marry me for Briarstone."
Mason shook his head immediately.
"No."
"But once you discovered marrying me put you beside the person who controlled the other fifty-one percent, you decided silence was useful."
"That is not what happened."
Emma held up the deed.
"Then why is your signature on this acknowledgment?"
Mason stared at the bottom of the page.
A signature dated six months earlier sat beneath a paragraph confirming he had received notice of his contingent interest.
Sloane whispered, "Mason."
May you like
Emma felt the last piece of trust inside her crack.
"You knew exactly what this house could give you."
