Elias stopped moving.
The microphone nearly slipped from my hand.
Ward.
I looked at him.
“No.”
Elias stared at the screen.
His face had gone gray.
My mother continued.
“Thomas Ward was Elias’s older brother.”
A sound escaped Elias.
Not a word.
Something broken.
Shelby turned toward him.
My mother’s recorded voice filled the ballroom.
“Thomas died before Shelby was born. Margaret raised her alone. Elias was never told because Margaret feared the Ward family would attempt to take her child.”
Shelby whispered, “Oh my God.”
Elias looked at her.
For the first time in fifteen years, the most controlled man I knew looked completely defenseless.
“My brother had a daughter?”
Shelby stared back.
Neither moved.
But my mother had one final secret.
“Vivienne,” she said from the screen, “the night I died, Shelby came to warn me that Preston intended to forge your signature within forty-eight hours.”
I turned toward Shelby.
“She begged me to tell you. I refused because I wanted enough evidence to prosecute him.”
Shelby was crying openly now.
“After our meeting, Preston discovered she had warned me.”
Preston shouted.
“Turn this off!”
Security restrained him.
My mother continued.
“The following evening, while I was hospitalized, Preston came to my room.”
My blood froze.
“He told me you had signed the amendment.”
I stared at him.
“He showed me a copy.”
Preston struggled against security.
“He lied,” my mother said. “And I became distressed.”
The screen changed.
Hospital corridor footage.
10:38 p.m.
Preston walking toward my mother’s room.
I heard gasps.
He had told me he was downtown.
The hotel invoice had been paid later.
He had gone to Shelby afterward.
My mother continued.
“My cardiac condition was fragile. Preston knew that.”
My knees weakened.
“He did not kill me with poison. He did not touch me. But he knowingly used the one weapon he understood perfectly.”
She paused.
“Fear for my daughter.”
I looked at Preston.
He stopped fighting.
“He told me you were going to lose Hartwell. He told me you were mentally ill. He told me you had signed everything away.”
My mother swallowed.
“I suffered cardiac arrest thirty-one minutes after he left.”
The ballroom was silent.
Preston whispered, “That proves nothing.”
Elias looked at him.
“You’re right.”
Preston blinked.
Then Elias reached inside his jacket again.
“That’s why we needed this.”
A voice recording began.
Preston’s voice.
“Once the old woman is gone, Vivienne won’t last six months.”
Shelby’s voice answered.
“Don’t talk like that.”
“She’s already unraveling.”
“You said you weren’t going to hurt anyone.”
“I don’t have to hurt her. I just have to make everyone believe she can’t manage herself.”
