Chapter 7 - The Gift Maris Bought With Annie’s Name
The final speech of Maris’s birthday celebration had been scheduled for nine o’clock.
A velvet-covered display board waited behind the stage curtain.
Victor ordered hotel staff to bring it out.
Maris tried to stop them.
“This is my event.”
Victor did not look at her.
“Not anymore.”
The cover was removed.
A photograph showed a waterfront estate near Annapolis.
Gold lettering beneath it read:
MARIS HOUSE — A LEGACY FOR GENERATIONS.
Guests applauded uncertainly.
Victor looked at Brian.
“The property?”
Brian nodded.
“Purchased through a company connected to the account receiving your monthly transfers.”
Maris stepped forward.
“That house is an investment.”
“In whose name?”
She did not answer.
Brian produced a public property summary.
The purchasing company was controlled by Maris and Leonard.
The down payment included money transferred from the account Victor believed supported Annie.
A second loan was secured using personal information tied to Annie.
Victor slowly turned toward his mother.
“You bought yourself a waterfront estate with money meant to feed my child.”
Maris’s composure cracked.
“I preserved family wealth.”
“By leaving my daughter hungry?”
“Catherine made choices.”
“What choices?”
“She refused to cooperate.”
“With what?”
Maris looked toward the guests.
Victor understood she did not want to answer publicly.
That made him more certain.
“With what, Mother?”
Her nostrils trembled.
“Annie’s trust.”
Victor froze.
“What trust?”
Maris realized she had said too much.
Brian looked startled.
Even he had not known.
Victor’s late father had created education and inheritance accounts for future grandchildren.
Victor believed the trust was inactive because required documents had never been completed.
Apparently, Maris had activated it after Annie’s birth.
She controlled the paperwork.
Catherine discovered irregular withdrawals.
That was the real reason Maris forced her out.
Victor called his chief financial officer.
“Find every account bearing Annie Williams’s name.”
Maris moved toward him.
“You cannot conduct an audit during my birthday.”
Victor stepped back, keeping Annie away from her.
“You made my daughter’s hunger part of your celebration.”
The ballroom remained silent.
The three-tier cake stood untouched behind them.
An ivory flower lay on the floor beside the silver server.
Then Victor’s phone buzzed.
His chief financial officer had found seven accounts.
May you like
Three had already been emptied.
👉 Annie’s stolen trust explained the money—but Maris’s motive began years before Catherine ever entered the family.
