Chapter 2 - The Reading of the Real Will
The ballroom transformed into a pressure cooker. The investors were whispering frantically, staring at the legal documents in their hands. Celeste’s perfect holiday facade was melting away like the ice sculpture behind her.
"Harrison, what are you talking about?" Celeste demanded, her voice rising an octave. "The will was read at the attorney's office yesterday morning! I am the sole executor of the Beatrice estate. I hold the certified copy!"
"You hold a copy of a will drafted four years ago, Celeste," Mr. Harrison said calmly, stepping onto the raised platform where the musicians had been playing. He opened his briefcase and pulled out a document stamped with a fresh, holographic seal from the state probate court. "What you do not know is that Beatrice executed a codicil and an entirely new, overriding last will and testament exactly six days ago—right from her hospital bed."
Grant looked at Celeste, panic finally bleeding into his eyes. "Celeste, you said everything was locked down! You said the old lady was out of it!"
"Shut up, Grant!" she snapped, turning back to the lawyer. "That’s impossible! She was heavily sedated. She didn't have the testamentary capacity to sign anything. I'll have it thrown out of court by tomorrow morning!"
"I expected you to say that," I interrupted, stepping up beside Mr. Harrison. "Which is why the signing was witnessed not only by Mr. Harrison, but also by the Chief of Medicine at the hospital and the head of the hospital’s psychiatric evaluation board. We have a certified video recording of Grandma Beatrice, completely lucid, explaining exactly why she was changing her will."
Mr. Harrison adjusted his glasses and began to read aloud, his voice carrying over the built-in speaker system.
"I, Beatrice Vance, being of sound mind, hereby revoke all prior wills and testaments. To my stepdaughter-in-law, Celeste Vance, who married into my family with ambition in her eyes and venom in her veins, I leave the sum of exactly one dollar. Furthermore, I revoke her right of residency in the Vance Manor effective immediately upon the announcement of this instrument."
A collective gasp rippled through the sixty guests. Celeste stumbled back, her hand catching the edge of a catering table, sending several champagne flutes crashing to the floor.
"To Grant Miller," Mr. Harrison continued, looking directly at my husband, "who believed his marriage to my granddaughter was a ticket to a corporate empire, I leave nothing but the immediate termination of his employment contract at Vance Enterprises for cause."
"For cause?!" Grant screamed, his face turning an angry shade of purple. "You can't do that! I built the quarterly revenue! I am the managing partner!"
"You were the managing partner, Grant," I corrected him, pulling out the folded check they had given me on the terrace. I ripped it into tiny pieces and let the confetti fall into the puddle of spilled champagne. "You thought two hundred thousand dollars could buy my silence? You used my own forensic accounting training against me, forgetting that I am the one who taught you how to read a balance sheet."
Mr. Harrison cleared his throat to read the final clause. "The entirety of my estate, including the controlling 51% shares of Vance Enterprises, all physical properties, and the hidden reserve trust, is left solely to my beloved granddaughter. She is hereby appointed the absolute executor with full authority to clean my house of the parasites who tried to bleed it dry."
The ballroom was dead silent. I looked at Celeste, whose hands were shaking violently now.
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"This isn't over," Celeste hissed, her voice low and dangerous. "You think you can just kick me out of my life? I built the connections with these investors! Without me, the Vance stock plunges to zero by tomorrow morning. Isn't that right, gentlemen?"
She turned to the crowd of investors, looking for a lifeline. But the investors were looking down at the red boxes I had distributed. They weren't just looking at divorce papers anymore. They were looking at the second document hidden inside the lining of the boxes.
