Chapter 13 - The Snail in the Garden.
Dawn had not yet reached the estate when Mason, Clara, Daniel, and Patricia crossed the wet garden toward the old greenhouse.
Avery stayed inside with Russell after making Mason promise he would tell her whether the snail still had its chipped ear.
The stone sculpture sat beneath an ivy-covered wall.
It was ridiculous and beloved, a waist-high garden snail with a smiling face that Evelyn had bought because Avery laughed at it as a toddler.
Mason brushed rainwater from its shell.
"Where would she hide anything?"
Clara crouched beside the base.
"Avery said the ear was chipped."
Patricia ran her hand around the left side.
"It was repaired after a storm."
Mason looked closer.
A thin seam circled the shell.
Daniel found a recessed screw beneath the stone lip.
He turned it with a multitool.
Part of the shell loosened.
Inside was a sealed waterproof cylinder.
Clara stared at it.
"Evelyn actually did this."
Patricia gave a sad little smile.
"She loved dramatic backup plans."
Mason opened the cylinder.
The blue folder was inside.
For the first time all night, everyone exhaled.
Then Daniel frowned.
"The seal was cut recently."
Mason's relief vanished.
The folder looked intact, but someone had opened the cylinder before them.
Clara flipped through the documents.
The original trust amendment was there.
So were the verified adoption records.
But one page had been removed from Evelyn's list of information requests.
Patricia stared at the gap.
"Someone knew exactly what they wanted."
Mason looked toward the dark tree line.
"Serena."
Daniel's radio crackled.
Security had located her car two streets away, abandoned with the keys inside.
No one had seen her since.
Clara held the trust amendment against her chest.
"Can we file the objection now?"
Lena met them at the garden entrance with a laptop.
"Yes."
They returned to the house and scanned every page.
At 5:32 a.m., Clara signed the protector verification.
At 5:41, Lena submitted the objection to the board secretary.
At 5:46, confirmation arrived.
The emergency transfer vote could no longer proceed without a formal review.
Mason read the confirmation twice.
"So it's stopped."
Lena nodded.
"For now."
Patricia sat at the kitchen island where the entire night had begun.
The untouched cake had gone dry at the edges.
Clara looked at it and almost laughed.
"This started with frosting."
Mason poured coffee.
"In this house, apparently frosting is a security event."
Even Patricia smiled faintly.
The moment of relief lasted less than a minute.
Lena's laptop chimed.
She read the new message and went still.
"We have a problem."
Mason looked at her.
"What now?"
"Northstar withdrew the merger proposal."
Graham, who had returned downstairs, frowned.
"That sounds like good news."
Lena shook her head.
"They replaced it with a lawsuit."
Mason's eyes narrowed.
"Against whom?"
"The trust."
Clara looked confused.
"On what basis?"
Lena turned the screen.
Northstar claimed it had entered negotiations based on representations made by an authorized family agent.
It claimed financial damages from the sudden reversal.
Attached to the filing was a contract.
Mason recognized his signature immediately.
This one was real.
He stared at the date.
It had been signed eleven months earlier.
"I never signed a merger contract."
Lena examined it.
"You signed this page as part of a routine refinancing package."
Mason remembered signing hundreds of pages that week.
"Someone switched the document?"
"Possibly."
Patricia looked toward the missing page in Evelyn's list.
"Serena had access to every packet Mason signed."
Graham frowned.
"Why would she want Northstar to sue instead of merge?"
Adrian, who had been silent near the doorway, answered.
"Because a lawsuit opens discovery."
Everyone looked at him.
"And discovery opens the entire family trust."
Clara understood first.
"Including my records."
Adrian nodded.
"Including every hidden beneficiary, every private settlement, and every transfer Evelyn ever made."
Patricia's face changed.
"Then this was never only about control of Cross Meridian."
Mason looked at her.
"What else is in the trust?"
Patricia did not answer.
Clara stared at her.
May you like
"There is still another secret."
Patricia's silence confirmed it.
