Paula did not answer her phone.
I called six times while Anna drove us toward the temporary office Denise had arranged for investigators. Each call went straight to voicemail. On the seventh attempt, I stopped trying. The silence coming from Paula’s phone felt different from the silence of someone who simply did not want to talk. It felt deliberate.
“She knew we were coming,” Anna said quietly.
I looked at her. “How?”
“She sent me a message two hours ago.”
Anna handed me her phone at a red light. The message was short: *I found something in Dad’s old things. I need to talk to Susan before anyone else sees it.*
Below that was an address.
My stomach tightened.
It was Paula’s old apartment.
The same apartment she and Jared had shared before everything collapsed.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“I didn’t know if it was a trap.”
Neither did I.
Denise listened without interrupting when we told her. Robert immediately pulled up the address and began checking whether anyone had been seen entering or leaving. The apartment building was on a narrow street less than twenty minutes from where we were sitting.
“She could be there,” Denise said. “Or someone could be using her phone.”
“I’m going,” I said.
Denise shook her head. “You’re not going alone.”
For the first time since this nightmare began, I almost laughed.
There had been a time when being told not to go somewhere alone would have made me feel protected. Now it made me think about every locked door, every missing file, every document somebody had quietly signed in my name.
“I’m beginning to hate that sentence,” I said.
Denise gave me a tired smile. “So am I.”
We went in two cars.
The apartment building looked exactly as I remembered it from the few times Paula had mentioned it. Brick walls darkened by rain. A narrow entrance. Mailboxes with names taped over older names. The hallway smelled faintly of detergent and old cooking oil.
Paula’s apartment door was closed.
Denise knocked.
No answer.
She knocked again and announced herself.
Still nothing.
Robert tried the handle. It opened.
The apartment was empty.
Not abandoned. Empty.
A coat still hung over a chair. Two cups sat in the kitchen sink. A lamp had been left on in the living room, though the curtains were closed against the afternoon light.
“She was here,” I whispered.
Robert moved through the rooms while Denise checked the kitchen and bathroom. I stood near the dining table, staring at a photograph Paula had left behind.
It was a picture of her and Jared on their wedding day.
Jared was smiling.
Paula was not.
I had never noticed that before.
“Mom.”
Her voice came from behind me.
I turned so quickly my shoulder struck the table.
Paula stood in the doorway.
Her hair was damp. Her face looked pale, and there was a bruise along her left wrist.
“Oh, God,” I said.
She looked at Denise first, then Robert, then finally at me.
“I didn't know who else to trust.”
I crossed the room.
“What happened?”
“Michael.”
The name made everyone stop.
Paula swallowed.
“He came to me this morning.”
Denise immediately moved closer. “Where?”
“Here.”
“Is he still here?”
“No.”
“What did he want?”
Paula looked at me.
“He wanted the trust documents.”
The room seemed to shrink around us.
I stepped closer. “How did he know you had anything?”
“He said Frank told him.”
My heart began beating harder.
Paula reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small envelope.
“I found this in Jared’s storage box.”
She handed it to me.
Inside was a folded piece of paper covered in Jared’s handwriting. At the top was a date from three years earlier.
Under it were three words:
PAULA — SUCCESSOR.*
I stared at them.
Paula began crying.
“I didn't know what that meant.”
I looked at her.
“You knew about the trust?”
“No.”
“You knew Dad was alive.”
“Yes.”
“You gave Jared my documents.”
Her eyes closed.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more because she didn't try to soften it.
“I gave him copies,” she whispered. “I thought he was trying to help us. I thought he was using Dad to get money, and I hated him for it, but I didn't know what Frank was planning.”
Denise asked, “What changed today?”
Paula wiped her face.
“Michael showed me a document. He said if you were declared dead, I became the person who could control everything.”
I felt cold.
“Everything?”
“He said the trust, the property, the accounts connected to it. He said it was already arranged.”
“By whom?”
“Your father.”
I stared at her.
“My father would never have arranged something like that.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you believe him?”
“Because he showed me your father's signature.”
The room went silent.
I thought about the letter in the safe-deposit box. The brass key. Daniel’s name. The trust agreement. The warning that authority would pass to Paula only if both Susan and Sam were unable to control the trust and Daniel was unavailable.
Michael had taken one clause and built an entire lie around it.
He wanted Paula frightened enough to accept control.
Or frightened enough to hand it over.
“What did you do?” Denise asked.
Paula looked at me.
“I told him I would think about it.”
“And then?”
“He told me I had until tonight.”
Denise exchanged a glance with Robert.
“Where is Michael now?”
“I don't know.”
“Did he threaten you?”
Paula pulled back her sleeve.
The bruise was darker than I had first realized.
“He grabbed me when I told him I wasn't giving him anything.”
My anger rose so suddenly that I had to sit down.
For months I had imagined Paula as the person who had betrayed me.
Now, sitting across from her, I realized betrayal and fear could exist in the same person at the same time.
That did not erase what she had done.
But it explained why her hands were shaking.
Paula reached into a drawer and pulled out a small flash drive.
“This is what he wanted.”
Denise took it carefully.
“What’s on it?”
“Everything Jared kept.”
I looked at Paula.
“You already copied it?”
She nodded.
“I gave Michael a blank drive.”
For the first time that day, Denise smiled.
“Good.”
But Paula wasn't finished.
“There’s one more thing.”
She pulled out an old envelope.
My name was written on it.
Not typed.
Written.
I recognized the handwriting immediately.
Daniel.
My brother's handwriting had always leaned slightly to the right, as though every sentence were in a hurry to leave him.
My fingers trembled as I opened it.
Inside was a single sentence.
Susan, if they ever come for the trust, do not trust the person who tells you Paula is the enemy.*
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
I looked at my daughter.
Paula was crying again.
And for the first time since this began, I understood that Daniel had known exactly what might happen.
He had known Paula could be manipulated.
He had known I would blame her.
And he had left me one final warning not to let that happen.
Outside, a car engine started.
Robert rushed to the window.
A dark sedan pulled away from the curb.
“Do you recognize it?” Denise asked Paula.
Paula nodded.
Her face drained of color.
“That’s Michael’s car.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 14: Michael Left Before We Could Reach Him, But He Had Made One Mistake That Could Finally Lead Us to the Truth
The Appointment Was Supposed to Fix a Simple Problem Until the Clerk Looked at My Record and Went Completely Silent
Part 13 of 20
