Chapter 8 - The Inheritance Vivienne Thought She Could Reach
The transfer led to Attorney Malcolm Reeves.
Reeves represented members of the Mercer family’s secondary trust branch.
Vivienne’s mother was distantly connected to that branch.
Grant finally understood the structure.
If Noah had never existed—
or if Noah’s inheritance rights could somehow be challenged—
control over several Mercer assets could shift.
Not directly to Vivienne.
But to people she had spent years aligning herself with.
People who had promised her influence.
Board seats.
Equity.
Access.
A life she believed Emma had stolen.
Grant’s attorney placed the documents on the table.
“She wasn’t trying to inherit everything personally.”
Grant stared.
“She was trying to make herself indispensable to the branch that would.”
“Yes.”
Tessa shook her head.
“So Noah represented the end of that plan.”
“Exactly.”
Grant felt sick.
Vivienne’s cruelty suddenly had structure.
Before Noah, she resented Emma.
After Noah, she feared permanence.
Then Emma found the money trail.
Vivienne panicked.
After Emma died, Vivienne moved closer to Grant.
Not immediately.
Carefully.
Supportive dinners.
Business advice.
Help with Noah.
Grant had interpreted it as kindness.
Now he saw strategy.
“She was waiting for me to depend on her.”
Tessa nodded.
“And you did.”
Grant looked at her.
She didn’t apologize.
He appreciated that.
“I did.”
Then Grant remembered something.
Three months after Emma died, Vivienne proposed restructuring portions of the trust.
She claimed it would simplify taxes.
Grant had nearly signed.
His attorney retrieved the draft.
A buried clause would have expanded control of certain assets to an advisory board.
Two names on the proposed board were connected to Malcolm Reeves.
Grant stared at the paper.
“She almost got it.”
“Yes.”
“If I signed…”
“Her allies would have gained significant influence.”
Grant leaned back.
And then realized why Vivienne had become more hostile toward Noah recently.
Grant had canceled the restructuring.
On Tessa’s advice.
Months earlier.
Tessa had told him the changes felt too complicated.
Grant had listened.
Vivienne’s plan was slipping away.
And Noah remained the legal center of everything.
Grant looked at Tessa.
“She attacked Noah because she was losing control.”
Tessa’s expression hardened.
“She attacked a baby because she thought everyone else existed for her.”
Investigators now had motive.
Financial connections.
Recordings.
Unauthorized medical access.
The security footage.
But they still needed to determine exactly what could be charged.
Then another witness surfaced.
Emma’s former nurse.
She remembered Vivienne at the hospital on the night Emma died.
Grant had been told Vivienne arrived afterward.
The nurse said otherwise.
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Vivienne was there before Emma’s condition worsened.
👉 Grant had finally traced the money, but a nurse’s memory placed Vivienne at Emma’s bedside during the exact window she had always claimed she wasn’t there.
