Chapter 9 - Under the Floorboards of the Lakehouse
Equipped with Clara’s sworn deposition and the digital photo evidence of the illicit prescriptions, Julian Sterling secured an emergency search warrant from a Westchester Supreme Court judge for Sloane Vance’s private property—a secluded lakehouse in upstate New York that Sloane had purchased under an LLC three years earlier.
Graham joined the court-appointed sheriff’s deputies and digital forensic team as they arrived at the gated retreat on Tuesday morning.
The lakehouse was modern, cold, and secluded, surrounded by dense pine woods. While deputies searched the main living quarters, David, the digital investigator, accessed the private home network in Sloane’s private home office.
"Mr. Grant, look at this," David called out from behind a sleek white desk.
Graham walked over, looking at the high-resolution monitor. David had bypassed the local drive encryption on Sloane’s backup server.
Spread across the screen was a meticulously organized folder titled: PROJECT GRANT.
Inside were subfolders spanning the entire twenty-four months of Graham and Sloane’s relationship:
Graham_Psychological_Profile_Vulnerabilities.pdf
Elena_Trust_Fund_Loophole_Analysis.docx
Oakridge_Academy_Placement_Timeline.xlsx
Asset_Liquidation_Sequence_Post_Marriage.pdf
Graham clicked on the second file.
It was an exhaustive legal brief prepared by a disbarred estate lawyer whom Sloane had secretly consulted eight months before Graham even proposed to her. The document outlined a step-by-step strategy for systematically isolating Graham from his late wife’s family, manufacturing behavioral documentation against Maisie, and redirecting the $22 million trust into offshore accounts controlled by Sloane’s shell companies in the Cayman Islands.
"She didn't stumble into this," Graham said, his voice dropping into a register of utter disbelief. "She researched Elena’s estate within three weeks of Elena’s funeral. She targeted me at the charity gala on purpose."
"There's more," David said, pointing to a sub-folder labeled Historical Precedents.
Graham opened it.
Inside were newspaper clippings from seven years ago in Chicago. A wealthy widower named Richard Thorne had married a young woman named Sloane Vance. Within fourteen months of the wedding, Thorne’s teenage son from his previous marriage had been institutionalized for 'severe emotional instability,' Thorne had died of an unexpected cardiovascular arrest while on a private yacht, and Sloane had walked away with a seven-million-dollar insurance settlement before moving to New York and rebranding herself as a high-society consultant.
Graham felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
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Sloane wasn't just a greedy socialite trying to sideline a stepdaughter.
She was a serial predator who specialized in hunting grieving men and destroying their children for profit.
