“No worries.” She laughed, a tight, businesslike laugh like manners demanded it but she didn’t quite want to be wasting the time. “I think you were ten. Maybe younger, but when Mr. Banks called and requested a partner to look over your trust, I jumped at the opportunity.”

“Thank you.” A rush of breath fell from me. “I really appreciate—”

“No appreciation necessary, and no apologies. Truly, I was shocked when Mr. Banks told me what he found when he looked over your copy and I jumped at it. We all loved Bob, and we miss him, like I said. He’s a good man, an even better attorney, but between you and me, he made some questionable decisions in his last couple of years. One of which was the lawyer he wanted to assign your trust to. That man has since been imprisoned for embezzlement, so we’re all a little ashamed of that. Regardless, I’ve called Bob and left a message with him. He and his wife Suzie are traveling through Italy this month and with the time change, getting a hold of him has been difficult. Regardless, I’m curious as to the decisions he made since he helped draft the trust.”

My heart beat erratically. Her no-nonsense approach only had me further on edge instead of calming me. Every time I reached out, it felt like I was only getting more questions, fewer answers—and that didn’t even touch on the whole embezzlement thing.

“So.” She tapped something else. She had to have long gel nails or acrylics or something for them to make such a harsh sound. “What I’ve determined is one, Mr. Banks is correct. The trust drafted by Mr. Dickerson never should have left our office. I understand you moved it to Fowler, Hayes, and Miller, correct?”

“Yes. Glen Hayes. I haven’t been able to get a hold of him.”

“I’m not surprised. My assumption is he knows he’s not supposed to have it. Taking work like this, knowingly violating a contract doesn’t speak highly of him, so to be honest, I’m quite pissed any of this has happened and it should be us offering our apologies as well as our solutions.”

Solutions. Finally. My pulse slowed as she took a breath, and a few more taps on the keys.

“Now, Mr. Banks mentioned why you transferred the trust over to Hayes, but just to ensure we’re on the same page, can you please tell me what happened?”

“Of course.” I told her about getting engaged to Lincoln, dating him the two years prior. After we got engaged, I’d asked him to come with me to Dickerson’s office to talk with Bob about the trust agreement once we were married. I went over Bob introducing me to the lawyer at the time and didn’t get a good feeling. Lincoln didn’t either because that was when he suggested I move everything over to the firm his family used.

“So, your fiancé at the time was set to become a very wealthy man.”