“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.