Chapter 4 - THE FIRST THING CAROLINE TOOK BACK
Caroline had never seen the Mercer family trust documents.
Luke handled their finances.
His father, Walter Mercer, had built a regional commercial-plumbing company and placed shares into a family trust years earlier. Luke received distributions but often complained that Walter still controlled the larger voting interest.
Caroline had assumed the trust had nothing to do with her pregnancies.
Her attorney, Denise Holloway, warned her not to speculate.
Instead, they worked on immediate protection.
Caroline changed every password she could access.
She froze the joint credit line.
She removed Luke as the only recovery contact on her personal bank account.
She notified her employer that Luke was not authorized to collect her belongings or discuss her leave.
She gave the hospital a written visitor restriction naming Luke and Evelyn.
Each decision felt embarrassingly small compared with what had happened in the living room.
Each one removed a little control.
Luke’s attorney contacted Denise that afternoon.
Luke wanted the protective order modified so he could attend the baby’s delivery if labor began.
Caroline said no.
His attorney then requested access to the house for personal property.
That could be arranged later under supervision.
Finally came the request Luke cared about most.
He wanted Caroline to return a locked gray document case from his office.
Caroline had noticed it before.
Luke normally treated it like furniture.
Now he was willing to negotiate hospital access in exchange for it.
Denise told Caroline not to touch the case until police determined whether it fell within their warrant or evidence request.
May you like
For the first time, Luke wanted something from the house more urgently than he wanted access to Caroline.
That meant the living room envelope was not the only thing he had been hiding.
Related Stories
