Chapter 14 - The Midnight Search in the Attic
By midnight, the house was pitch black except for the harsh beam of a utility flashlight cutting through the dusty darkness of the old attic.
When Lorraine lost control of the main estate, we had stacked dozens of her old metal filing cabinets and storage trunks up in the rafters, figuring we would sort through them eventually. Tonight became that night.
Travis knelt beside a massive green steel filing cabinet labeled Personal Properties - 1990-2005, his fingers flying over the brass latch with a small lock-picking set he had borrowed from a neighbor. With a soft click, the top drawer slid open.
I held the flashlight steady, illuminating folders filled with property tax receipts, old banking statements, and legal correspondence.
"Look for anything mentioning parcel 4-B," Travis instructed, coughing slightly from the decades-old dust.
We sifted through paper after paper. My fingers grew blackened with old carbon ink and yellowed dust. Just as fatigue was beginning to cloud my vision, my hand brushed against a hidden false bottom beneath the bottom folder.
"Travis, look," I whispered, pulling up the thin sheet of plywood.
Hidden beneath the false bottom was a single, sealed manila envelope stamped with a red wax seal bearing the initials L.M.
Travis took it from my hands, breaking the brittle wax seal with his thumb. He pulled out a single typewritten document titled Conditional Revocation of Ancillary Property Rights.
As his eyes scanned the legal text, his face drained of all color.
"What does it say?" I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"She didn't just hide a loophole," Travis whispered, looking up at me in horror. "She structured the carriage house deed so that if anyone outside the primary bloodline ever slept in that building for more than thirty consecutive nights, ownership reverts entirely to a third-party shell corporation controlled by Julian Vance’s law firm."
I stared at him in disbelief. "Who is currently sleeping in the carriage house?"
Travis swallowed hard. "Nobody. We kept it empty."
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"Are you sure?"
Before Travis could answer, a loud, heavy crash echoed from the backyard downstairs, followed by the shattering of glass coming directly from the direction of the old carriage house.
