“You have been served,” the man said, and drove away.
I didn’t open it until I was back inside the kitchen with the biometric locks engaged and the security cameras recording. My hands were steady, but my heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.
I sliced open the seal. I expected a lawsuit contesting the validity of the trust. I expected them to claim the signature was forged or the date was wrong.
I was wrong.
They weren’t attacking the paper. They were attacking the person holding it. The header read: Petition for Removal of Trustee and Emergency Appointment of Guardian Ad Litem.
I scanned the legalese, my stomach twisting into a cold, hard knot.
They were filing a motion to have me removed as trustee of the Walter and June Young Irrevocable Trust. Their grounds: Lack of Capacity. Undue Influence.
Financial Mismanagement.
I read the affidavit attached to the filing. It was signed by Elaine Young. Petitioner states that the respondent, Piper Young, has a history of emotional instability and isolation.
Petitioner asserts that the respondent took advantage of the decedent’s diminished mental state while isolating him from the rest of the family to coerce the execution of trust documents. Furthermore, the respondent is currently unemployed and lacks the financial literacy required to manage an estate of this magnitude.
I had to put the paper down on the counter because I thought I might tear it in half. They were painting a picture of me as a predator, a confused, unstable girl who whispered poison into a dying man’s ear while locking his loving family out.
It was a rewrite of history so audacious it took my breath away.
I picked up my phone to call Miles, but the screen lit up with a notification before I could dial. It was a text from my cousin Sarah, who lived in Ohio. We hadn’t spoken in two years, but we used to be close.
Sarah: Piper, is it true?
Aunt Elaine just called me. She said you are planning to sell the Harbor Hollow house to a condo developer and that you wouldn’t let them in to get Grandpa’s journals.
I stared at the screen. So that was the narrative.
They weren’t just fighting me in court; they were poisoning the water in the village. They knew the extended family cherished this house. By telling everyone I was selling to a developer—a lie so specific it had to be calculated—they were turning the entire Young clan against me.
Piper: That is a lie, Sarah.
I am keeping the house. They are the ones who wanted to flip it.
Sarah: That is not what Tessa said. She posted a long thing on Facebook about how heartbroken she is that greed has destroyed the family legacy.
Piper, people are really upset.
I didn’t reply. I couldn’t fight a social media war. I had to fight a legal one.
I called Miles.
“I have the letter,” I said as soon as he picked up.
“I have a copy too,” Miles said, his voice grim. “They are playing dirty, Piper. This is the nuclear option.
Challenging a trust is hard, so they are trying to destroy your character instead. If they can prove you are incompetent or that you manipulated Walter, a judge could strip you of the trusteeship and appoint… guess who?”
“Grant,” I said.
“Grant,” Miles confirmed. “Or a neutral third party who would eventually liquidate the assets to pay for the legal fees incurred by the dispute.”
“Grant told me he canceled my storage unit,” I said, my voice shaking with sudden rage.
“He told me he authorized them to auction my master’s thesis, my portfolio, everything.”
“Did you check?” Miles asked sharply.
“I called this morning,” I said. “He did try. He called the facility on Saturday pretending to be me, claiming I lost my key and wanted to terminate the lease.
But because the account has a two-step verification passcode—my mother’s maiden name, which he guessed wrong—they flagged it. My stuff is safe.”
“But the attempt, Miles. He tried to erase my professional life.”
“Good,” Miles said.
“Good. It proves malice. A loving father doesn’t try to auction his daughter’s education two days after a funeral.
We will subpoena the call logs from the storage facility. We will add it to the pile.”
“They are trying to say I am incompetent,” I said. “How do I prove I am not?”
“By being the most competent person in the room,” Miles said.
“They are going to try to provoke you. They want you to send angry texts. They want you to scream in public.
They want to show the judge a hysterical woman. Do not give them that.”
I hung up. I felt like the walls of the house were closing in.
I walked into the living room, the room where yesterday Mr. Vance had stood like a shield. Now the threat felt ghostlier.
My phone pinged again. An email alert. Security Warning: Multiple Failed Login Attempts Detected for Account: Harbor Hollow Utilities.
I clicked the link.
Someone had tried to access the electric and water accounts five times in the last hour. The IP address was local. They were trying to get into the utility accounts.
Why? Then it hit me. If they could log in, they could cancel the auto-pay.
They could turn off the lights. They could stop the heating oil delivery. And then in court, they could present the shut-off notices as proof that I was failing to maintain the asset.
I immediately logged in and changed the passwords to a random string of thirty characters.
I set up a hardware security key requirement. “Nice try, Tessa,” I whispered.
Then came the “Good Cop” routine. My phone buzzed with a message from Elaine.
Elaine: Piper, please. This has gone too far. Dad is furious.
He wants to drag this out for years. I don’t want to see your name dragged through the mud in court. The lawyers are talking about requesting your medical records.
About that time you saw the therapist in college.
I froze. I had seen a counselor for anxiety during my sophomore year finals. It was normal.
It was healthy. But Elaine was weaponizing it. She was threatening to air my private medical history in a public hearing to paint me as unstable.
Elaine: Just sign a settlement.
We can split the house three ways. We will drop the lawsuit. No one needs to know about your episodes.
I can protect your reputation. Please, honey. Let me be your mom.
The audacity was breathtaking.
She was holding the gun and promising to save me from the bullet if I just handed over the wallet. I didn’t reply. I took a screenshot.
I saved it to the folder named The Evidence.
I needed air. I needed to think. I walked into Grandfather’s study.
The room still smelled of his pipe tobacco and old leather. I sat in his chair, the same chair Grant had tried to claim. I opened the bottom drawer of his desk, the one where he kept his “thinking tapes.” Walter used to record his thoughts on a Dictaphone.
He said his hands shook too much to write in the evenings, so he spoke to the machine. I had listened to most of them, but there was one small cassette in a case labeled Just In Case. I had found it a week ago but hadn’t had the courage to play it.
It felt too final. But now, with their accusations of undue influence ringing in my ears, I needed to hear him.
I put the tape into the player and pressed play. The magnetic tape hissed for a moment.
And then Walter’s voice filled the room. It was weak, breathless, but the mind behind it was sharp as a tack.
“It is March 3rd. I am recording this because I know my son.” I closed my eyes.
“Grant was here today. He brought papers. He wanted Power of Attorney.
He told me I was confused. He told me I was forgetting things. I told him the only thing I have forgotten is why I lent him that money in ’99.” A dry, raspy chuckle.
“I am not confused. I am dying. There is a difference.
But they will try to say I didn’t know what I was doing when I gave the house to Piper. They will say she tricked me. They will say she is weak.”
The tape hissed again.
“Piper, if you are listening to this, it means they have started the mudslinging.
It means they are attacking your character because they can’t attack your rights. Listen to me closely. In the blue binder under the insurance policies, there is a log.
I kept a log of every time they visited in the last five years. Dates, times, duration.”
I sat up straight. A log?
“You will see the pattern,” Walter’s voice continued.
“They visited
