Chapter 3 - The Paper Trail of Deceit
The rain began to fall in heavy,
slanted sheets over Aspen as I stepped into the back seat of the waiting taxi.
Lily didn't wake up,
her tiny body warm against mine,
a stark reminder of how close I had come to losing everything six weeks prior.
My attorney,
Marcus Vance—no relation to Mason,
ironically enough—was waiting for me at his downtown office,
a room filled with stack upon stack of financial ledgers and bank statements.
When I walked through the door,
Marcus looked up from his desk,
a grim,
satisfied smile touching his lips as he saw the Manila envelope still in my hand.
"I saw the news alerts,
"
Marcus said,
standing up to pull out a chair for me.
"The Pitkin County Sheriff's office just released his mugshot.
"
"It's already trending online.
"
"That's only the beginning,
Marcus,
"
I said,
setting the envelope down on his glass desk with a heavy thud.
"We need to freeze every single offshore account before his mother tries to transfer the capital to her sister's estate in the Cayman Islands.
"
Marcus pulled out a highlighter,
his eyes scanning through the pages of bank records we had subpoenaed just three days ago.
"You were right about the dummy corporation,
"
he noted,
tapping a pen against a specific line item.
"Vance Holdings LLC was registered in Delaware three days before you went into labor.
"
"He wasn't just planning to leave you,
Rachel;
he was planning an asset strip so complete that you wouldn't have had a single dollar to your name.
"
I leaned back in the chair,
feeling the deep exhaustion settling into my bones after weeks of running on pure adrenaline and maternal survival instinct.
"He thought I wouldn't check the cross-border wire transfers,
"
I murmured,
watching the raindrops race each other down the large glass window overlooking the pine trees.
"He thought because I was recovering from an emergency C-section,
I would be too weak to question where my trust fund money went.
"
"He underestimated how far a mother will go when you threaten her child,
"
Marcus said softly,
sliding a thick file across the table toward me.
"This is the deposition from the tow truck driver who picked up his SUV that night.
"
"What does it say?"
I asked,
my heart skipping a beat as the horrific memory of that blizzard rushed back.
"The driver noted that the passenger side door handle had been intentionally tampered with from the inside,
"
Marcus explained,
his tone dropping to an ominous whisper.
"The child lock was engaged,
and the interior manual release had been disabled.
"
"He didn't just leave you in the snow,
Rachel.
"
"He tried to make sure you couldn't get out of the vehicle until the temperature dropped below zero.
"
A cold shiver ran straight down my spine,
making me wrap my arms tighter around Lily.
I remembered pounding on the window,
screaming for him as he stepped into the snow,
locking the doors via his key fob,
and walking away toward the headlights of a waiting car driven by an unknown accomplice.
I had to break the side window with the heavy steel emergency hammer my late father had kept in the glove box,
cutting my arms frantically while protecting Lily from the flying shards of glass.
"Who picked him up,
Marcus?"
I demanded,
my voice trembling with a renewed flame of fury.
"Who was waiting for him at the top of the pass?"
Marcus opened another folder,
pulling out a grainy surveillance image taken from a gas station camera five miles down the mountain.
"We just got this from the state police an hour ago,
"
Marcus said,
pointing to the driver of a black sedan parked near the pump.
My eyes widened in utter disbelief as I recognized the face behind the wheel.
It wasn't a stranger.
It wasn't a hired driver.
It was Eleanor Vance.
His own mother had been waiting in the storm to help her son commit the ultimate act of cruelty.
"She knew,
"
I whispered,
a tear finally escaping my eye,
burning like acid against my cheek.
"She was in on it from the very beginning.
"
"She wasn't just protecting him after the fact;
she helped orchestrate the entire getaway.
"
Marcus nodded slowly,
his expression turning stone cold.
"Which means,
"
he said,
leaning forward,
"we are not just suing Mason for divorce and pressing criminal charges.
"
"We are filing federal conspiracy charges against Eleanor Vance as well.
"
"They thought they could throw you to the mountain,
Rachel,
"
Marcus added,
closing the file with a definitive snap.
"Now,
May you like
the avalanche is coming for them.
"
