Chapter 4 - The Notebook Allison Forgot to Hide
Police searched the locked bedroom after obtaining the appropriate authority.
They found copies of my court filings.
Emails.
Old photographs.
A tablet.
Medication.
The restraint hardware.
And a notebook written by Allison.
Detective Cole did not show me everything immediately.
She showed me what mattered.
One entry:
RACHEL CALLED AGAIN. RICHARD SAYS DO NOT ANSWER.
Another:
CALEB ASKED WHY HE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE RICHARD.
Another:
RACHEL THREATENING LAWYER.
Then an entry written twelve weeks earlier:
SHE KNOWS ABOUT THE TRUST.
I looked at Mara.
“What trust?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
That answer confused investigators.
According to Allison’s notebook, the trust was important enough to panic over.
I had no idea what it was.
Nora eventually reconstructed how I had accidentally triggered their fear.
Eighteen months earlier, Evan’s mother, Margaret Price, died.
I barely knew Margaret.
When Evan abandoned me during pregnancy, I assumed his whole family wanted nothing to do with us.
Apparently Margaret had been watching from a distance.
She owned commercial property, investment accounts, and a regional printing company.
Comfortable money.
Not movie-billionaire money.
Real wealth.
When she died, she left a professionally managed trust.
Beneficiary:
CALEB PRICE-MORGAN.
Estimated value:
Approximately $3.8 million.
I sat completely still.
“That’s Caleb.”
“Yes,” Nora said.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Because notice went to Caleb’s legally recognized household.
Richard and Allison.
The trust did not hand them $3.8 million.
A professional trustee retained control.
Funds could be used for Caleb’s education, healthcare, support, and approved welfare expenses.
But there had been reimbursements.
Private-school costs.
Medical bills.
Travel.
Housing expenses.
Many legitimate.
Some questionable.
Approximately $214,000 over eighteen months.
Then Detective Cole showed me one line.
$48,000 — HOME ACCESSIBILITY MODIFICATION FOR BENEFICIARY.
“Caleb isn’t disabled.”
“No.”
“What was modified?”
Mara looked at me carefully.
“We’re still establishing that.”
I thought about the room.
The reinforced fixtures.
The special door.
The bathroom added behind the wall.
Something inside me turned cold.
The trust had entered the story before I disappeared.
But I still didn’t understand how.
May you like
Neither did the police.
Not yet.
