“He hired a private investigator the day after you told him about the infidelity,” Brenda replied. “He didn’t leave a single stone unturned.”
I picked up the USB drive and asked what was on it.
“That is a video of Misty trying to bribe your father’s hospice nurse to leak information about the will just two days before he died.”
I sat there in total shock as Brenda explained that the nurse had alerted the authorities immediately. She then handed me another photograph of my brother, Jesse, sitting with Misty at an elegant restaurant.
“Look at the next photo in the stack,” Brenda urged me.
The second photo showed Jesse leaving that same restaurant with a distraught expression and a check clutched in his hand.
“Misty offered him ten million dollars to testify that your father was mentally unfit when he changed his will.”
“But she told me that Jesse was helping her take the estate.”
“Your brother has been pretending to go along with them just to make them feel safe,” she revealed. “He gave them just enough rope to hang themselves.”
I was still trying to process the betrayal when Brenda delivered the most shocking detail of the plan.
“Tomorrow at the reading, it will appear as though Misty and Simon are receiving a massive portion of the inheritance.”
I stood up abruptly, feeling a surge of panic.
“Why would he do that after everything they did?”
“Let me finish, because the moment they accept that inheritance, the codicil is officially activated. Their acceptance triggers a mandatory investigation that allows all this evidence to be presented to the prosecution.”
I finally understood the genius of my father’s final play.
“He made them believe they had won just so they would incriminate themselves by signing the papers.”
Suddenly, there was a sharp knock on the office door and my brother Jesse walked in. He looked exhausted and guilty as he carried a leather folder into the room.
“I came because there is one more thing you both need to hear before the meeting tomorrow.”
He sat down and played an audio recording from his phone that filled the room with Misty’s cold voice.
“When the old man dies, you will declare that he was senile, and Simon will fight for the house while Cassandra is left with nothing.”
Then I heard Simon’s voice, sounding familiar yet completely unrecognizable in its cruelty.
“Cassandra never deserved any of this because she only got ahead by being Harrison’s daughter.”
My throat tightened as Jesse turned off the recording and opened his folder.
“This is the worst part of it all,” he said quietly.
