Chapter 2 - MY FATHER’S WILL HAD THREE VERSIONS
By midnight, Catherine and Penelope were in a secure medical facility under protective arrangement.
Not a secret prison.
Not my estate.
A private hospital wing coordinated through federal investigators and Catherine’s attorney.
Penelope was dehydrated but otherwise healthy.
Catherine had lost weight.
She had old injuries from the crash.
Untreated anxiety.
Sleep deprivation.
No signs she had been physically imprisoned recently.
That mattered.
Because what happened to her was more complicated than being locked in a basement for two years.
She had been erased.
First through medical records.
Then legal identity.
Then money.
Then fear.
I sat outside the pediatric room while Penelope slept.
Catherine sat across from me.
For ten minutes neither of us spoke.
Finally I asked:
“Were you meeting Dad’s attorney before the crash?”
“Yes.”
“Victor Hale?”
“No.”
That surprised me.
“Who?”
“My attorney.”
She took breath.
“Samuel Reed.”
Not related to agent Jonah Reed.
Samuel had represented Catherine’s family before our marriage.
I vaguely remembered.
“Why?”
“Your father’s will.”
“What did you know?”
She stared at floor.
“Your father left three versions.”
My stomach tightened.
Version one:
Old family will.
Kincaid Industries voting control passed to me outright after Dad’s death, with Daria remaining chair emerita but no operational authority.
Version two:
Created after my first cardiac event? Wait protagonist? Daniel maybe no health issue yet. Let's say after Daniel was injured in helicopter accident two years before father died. Dad worried about succession.
It created emergency trust.
If I died or became incapacitated without adult children, Catherine would exercise voting authority over my shares for up to five years, supervised by independent trustees.
Not own company.
Control temporarily.
Why?
Dad did not trust my mother to regain operating control.
Version three:
Signed three days before Dad died.
It strengthened Catherine’s emergency authority and removed Daria from trust protector role entirely.
Why?
Because Dad had discovered my mother using family foundation money to support political/real-estate projects without board approval.
Not massive theft.
But governance violations.
He confronted.
Then changed will.
Catherine knew because Dad asked her to serve.
I did not.
Why didn't Dad tell me?
He planned.
Then died sooner than expected after infection complications.
Natural.
Catherine was left holding information that would explode family.
Then Victor Hale handled probate.
He presented version two.
Not three.
Catherine noticed.
She contacted Samuel.
Then investigated.
Version three had disappeared.
She had a photocopy.
Then the night before her crash she met Samuel to discuss petition compelling production.
My mother somehow learned.
Catherine drove home.
Brakes failed.
Car went off road.
She survived.
What happened after?
A passing couple found her before emergency crews.
She was concussed.
Ambulance took her to rural hospital.
Then Graham Pike appeared.
How?
My vehicle tracker.
Kincaid security monitored.
He arrived before I did.
Why didn't he call me?
He says Daria ordered him to handle.
Then Dr. Julian Voss—not Monroe? Need keep names consistent. We have Dr. Elias Monroe ME. At hospital maybe Dr. Adrian Cross? Let's introduce Dr. Helena Ward, private neurologist contracted by Kincaid. But too many. Let's use Daria’s private physician Dr. Julian Cross, familiar motif but okay. Yet we used Dr Cross in prior separate stories not relevant. Fine, this story standalone.
Dr. Cross told rural staff Catherine had a history of dissociative episodes after trauma.
False.
He arranged transfer to private rehabilitation facility.
Catherine woke disoriented.
Asked for me.
They said husband had been notified.
He had not.
Then Daria visited.
Once.
Catherine remembered.
Mother told:
“Daniel believes you died.”
Catherine thought hallucination.
Daria showed newspaper.
Funeral notice.
Then:
“If you try to leave, they will say you are an impostor.”
Catherine did try.
Facility had no legal right to hold indefinitely.
After two weeks, she was discharged under identity:
Catherine Maren.
Why Maren?
Her maternal grandmother’s name.
Daria’s lawyer arranged “temporary protective identity” through false documents? Too operational. Better Catherine’s bag had been switched with documents belonging to Cara Maren, a former clinic patient? That becomes identity fraud mechanics. Avoid.
Let's say she left without ID and later used Kate Maren, a name she chose, while a legal-aid attorney helped her obtain limited state ID based on alternative records. She was not officially Catherine Kincaid.
Then why didn't she come home?
She tried.
Two months after crash.
Kincaid gate.
Graham stopped.
He called Daria.
Daria said I was unstable from grief and Catherine’s return could kill me.
Catherine didn't believe.
Then she saw me through gate? Perhaps no.
She left letter.
Never got.
Then she contacted Samuel.
He had vanished.
Actually hospitalized after assault? Maybe too much.
Samuel had been arrested for unrelated tax issue fabricated? Hmm.
Maybe he had died in a boating accident? Too much.
Better Samuel went missing from practice after suddenly accepting settlement with Hale. Later Catherine learned he had been threatened and moved overseas. He returns later as witness. Could.
At the time, Catherine had no ally.
Then pregnancy.
She discovered six weeks after crash.
Penelope.
That changed.
She feared Daria would use child as leverage.
So she ran.
Across states.
Worked cash jobs.
Shelters.
Cheap motels.
Not literally homeless entire two years, but recently she lost cleaning job and apartment after someone found her.
Who?
Graham.
He had located her three months ago.
Did he capture?
No.
He surveilled.
She ran again.
That's why hotel sidewalk.
She had arranged to meet Samuel there? Maybe he contacted her to say federal investigator now involved.
Wait Daniel had investigator. Catherine didn't know. She happened outside hotel? Could be she intentionally selected hotel because she heard Daniel attending conference? User says she stops him outside. Maybe she was there knowing him? She might have learned his schedule. Let's make:
She came because Samuel, now back in U.S., told her Daniel would attend Kincaid lender conference at Grand Regent and that he suspected Daniel had never stopped searching. She approached.
So not coincidence.
She pretended to ask for cleaning job because black sedan nearby.
Then Daria appearing indicates surveillance.
I asked:
“Why didn’t you say my name immediately?”
“I did.”
“Why the homeless act?”
“Because I saw Graham’s sedan.”
There.
Then Penelope.
Was she mine?
Independent DNA scheduled.
We both knew likely.
Then Catherine asked:
“What is Phase Two?”
I told.
After funeral I found inconsistency in dental records.
The dentist whose chart supposedly identified her said police never contacted his office.
He later recanted? He said records requested by Victor Hale’s legal assistant.
Then one of Catherine’s rings found in evidence bag but chain weird.
I hired investigator.
Mother discovered and called grief counselor.
I stopped telling her.
Satellite phone.
Private case.
Mara Ellis joined after suspected interstate identity/insurance/federal securities issues.
Phase One:
Gather quietly.
No accusation without Catherine.
Phase Two:
If Catherine found alive or original death fraud proven, execute preservation/search warrants already supported conditionally.
Catherine stared.
“You believed I might be alive.”
“I hoped.”
“Did you ever look for me yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere wrong.”
She started crying.
Then:
“I wrote to you.”
“I never saw.”
“I called.”
“Numbers changed?”
“No.”
“Then?”
I told truth.
Mother controlled estate mail for six months after funeral.
Graham screened threats.
Victor Hale handled legal correspondence.
I had built a wall around myself.
Then I blamed them.
But I had authorized.
I was grieving.
Still.
Catherine said:
“You gave them keys.”
“Yes.”
That was mine.
Then she looked through glass at Penelope.
“Do you want to meet her?”
I laughed once.
“I’m terrified.”
“Good.”
I looked.
“Good?”
“You should be.”
Then:
“She is not evidence.”
There.
My daughter was not proof against Daria.
Not a will clause.
Not restitution.
A child.
I nodded.
Then she asked:
“Are you going to take her from me because you’re rich?”
My chest hurt.
“No.”
She studied.
“You could try.”
“I won’t.”
Then:
“Good.”
And that was first piece of trust we built.
Not love.
Not reunion.
Just no.
Then Mara entered.
She held a file.
“We found version three.”
Catherine stood.
“Where?”
“Victor Hale’s off-site archive.”
Then:
“And it is not what either of you think.”
My stomach dropped.
Mara laid it down.
Page twelve contained a clause Catherine had never seen.
If Catherine assumed emergency control of Kincaid Industries—
she would be required to initiate an independent investigation into Daniel Kincaid’s own conduct.
May you like
My father had not only been afraid of Daria.
He had been investigating me.
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