Page 115 of Destiny

“I may be the beneficiary of this trust, Brendan. But I swear to God, I have nothing to do with any of this.”

“Easy, baby.” He cups my cheek. “I believe you. And I believed Donny when he told me your family doesn’t know what this trust is.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I know you and your family are good people. But I have to warn you…”

“About what?”

“Not everyone in town feels the same as I do. My dad and I had a meeting at the house yesterday with everybody who got these letters. Some of them are out for blood.”

“My blood?”

“Your family’s blood. Listen, Ava, we can’t let anyone know that your name is on this as the beneficiary.”

“But I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“I know that. We need to go to Donny. Go to your father. Figure out what to do about all of this.”

I shake my head. “No, not yet.”

Brendan narrows his gaze. “Are you kidding me? Why not?”

“Because I’m trying to get this information out of my grandmother. I don’t have everything yet, and if she knows I’m going to other people behind her back, she’ll stop talking.”

Brendan sighs. “Ava…”

I clutch his forearm. “You’ve got to trust me on this, Brendan. For some reason, my grandmother has decided she and I are connected in some weird way. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how, but she seems to trust me.”

“And you don’t think you’re in any danger from her?”

“She’s an old woman.”

He twists his lips. “An old woman who probably orchestrated the shooting of your uncle. His poisoning too. An old woman who likely orchestrated all that horrid stuff taking place on your family’s property.”

I pause a moment, thinking. “It’s starting to make sense now,” I say more to myself than to Brendan.

“What do you mean?”

I absently place my hand over my heart. “She said I was the key. I don’t know why she chose me, Brendan. I don’t know why, but I need to find out. For my own peace of mind. For my family’s safety. And for you. So that you and I can have a life together, free from Wendy Madigan’s madness.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Brendan

While Ava talks to Wendy, I sit in the kitchen with Ryan and Ruby, showing them copies of some of the relevant documents that Ava and I made this morning before heading to the ranch.

Ryan stares at the trust for the benefit of his daughter. “Jesus Christ.”

“I took the liberty of asking Jade about trusts,” Ruby says. “This appears to be a simple revocable trust. The trustor, the creator of the trust, being the Fleming Corporation, the trustee being the law firm, Wolfram and Burke, and the beneficiary being Ava. However, Ava’s only been in existence for twenty-four years, and this trust has been in existence a lot longer, which means, someone changed the beneficiary, which only the trustor should be able to do.”

“I guess we find the Fleming Corporation,” I say.

“Joe and Brock found some files concerning the Fleming Corporation when they were on Doc Sheraton’s property,” Ryan says.

“Apparently it’s been around for a while,” Ruby says.

“When we first came across it twenty-five years ago,” Ryan says, “we thought it was a dummy corporation put together by Larry Wade, Theo Matthias, and Tom Simpson. Now, it seems to be much more.”

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