Chapter 2 - The Signature They Still Needed
Trevor jerked his wrist away from Linda.
“You talk too much.”
“She was supposed to sign before this happened,” Linda snapped.
Daniel pounded on the garage door again.
Police sirens sounded faintly beyond the storm.
Rebecca kept her eyes on Trevor.
“What am I supposed to sign?”
“Nothing,” he said.
Linda gave a bitter laugh.
“There’s no point pretending anymore.”
She reached beneath her coat and removed a folded legal document.
The top page was titled Voluntary Marital Property Transfer.
Rebecca recognized the name of Trevor’s family company beneath it.
Northstar Residential Holdings.
Trevor had told her the company barely survived after his father died. He said medical debt and unpaid taxes had consumed everything.
Yet the document valued Rebecca’s marital interest at more than $18 million.
Her hands went cold.
“I don’t own any part of Northstar.”
“You do now,” Linda said.
Trevor glared at his mother.
“Stop.”
Linda continued anyway.
“Your husband transferred several properties into both your names because creditors were closing in. He needed a clean owner.”
Rebecca remembered the papers Trevor had brought home during her first trimester.
He claimed they authorized repairs on rental houses.
She signed because she trusted him.
Now she understood.
Trevor had moved stolen or hidden assets into her name.
“What does my baby have to do with it?”
Linda’s gaze dropped to Rebecca’s stomach.
“Trevor’s father created a family trust. If Trevor has a biological child, control of the company transfers to that child at birth.”
Rebecca looked at Trevor.
“So the baby inherits Northstar?”
“Not exactly,” Linda said. “The child’s legal guardian controls it.”
Trevor needed the baby born.
He also needed Rebecca gone.
If she died before delivery, the plan failed.
That explained why Linda had stopped the flame.
“You weren’t going to burn me tonight,” Rebecca whispered. “You were terrifying me into signing away my rights.”
Trevor’s smile returned.
“Finally.”
The sirens grew louder.
Daniel shouted through the door.
“Rebecca, move away from the truck!”
Trevor grabbed the legal papers and shoved a pen toward her.
“Sign.”
“No.”
He pressed the lighter near her sleeve.
“Sign now, and maybe you leave this garage alive.”
Rebecca looked toward Linda.
“You’re helping your son steal from your own grandchild.”
Linda showed no emotion.
“That child is a financial instrument, not a family member.”
Something inside Rebecca hardened.
She had spent months wondering why Linda never touched her pregnant stomach or asked about the baby’s name.
Now she knew.
They had never seen a child.
They had seen a trust.
The garage door buckled inward under another blow.
Trevor shoved the pen into Rebecca’s hand.
Before she could move, the automatic opener suddenly activated.
The door began rising.
Daniel stood outside holding a heavy tire iron.
Two police officers appeared behind him.
Trevor threw the lighter onto the floor.
The flame landed inches from the gasoline.
Rebecca kicked it beneath a metal shelf.
An officer tackled Trevor.
Linda tried to hide the documents inside her coat.
Daniel pointed directly at her.
“She was part of it.”
As police pulled Trevor away, he looked over his shoulder at Rebecca.
“You think this saves you?”
His eyes moved to her stomach.
May you like
“The trust activates in six weeks. You won’t survive that long.”
👉 Trevor was arrested, but his threat made it clear that the garage attack was only the first step in a plan already moving around Rebecca.
