Chapter 11 - VANCE TALKS
Vance requested the meeting three days later. This time he did not ask Maya to drop the protective order. His attorney proposed a conference room at Rebecca’s firm with counsel present, no direct physical contact and no discussion of reconciliation unless Maya initiated it. Maya agreed because she wanted the Continuity Book, not because she wanted to hear another apology.
Vance looked smaller outside the estate. He wore an ordinary gray suit and had none of the confidence he carried in the bedroom. When he started by saying he loved Maya, she stopped him. “Tell me where the blue binder is.”
His mouth tightened. “My mother moved it.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Lauren, sitting behind Maya as personal support rather than investigator, said nothing. Maya continued. “You confirmed it existed. You knew she moved it before the search. You know more than you’re saying.”
Vance admitted that Constance kept two sets of records: formal accounting files and the Continuity Book, where she tracked the true reserve gaps. After Maya’s January transfer drew questions from the trust administrator, Vance told Constance the book could destroy them if anyone found it. He claimed he wanted it destroyed. Constance refused because she considered it proof that every hidden transfer had been used to preserve family assets rather than enrich herself.
Maya asked the question that had mattered since the hospital. “When did you decide it was acceptable to force me?”
Vance looked at the table. He said he never planned the bedroom to become violent. He believed Maya would sign after he showed her the lender deadline. When she refused and said she was leaving him after the baby came, he panicked. Maya reminded him that he had blocked the door before she said anything about leaving.
The lie collapsed quickly.
He finally admitted Constance told him they needed Maya’s signature that night because the bank review could not be delayed again. If the transfer failed, lenders might demand access to underlying reserve schedules. “My mother said the company would collapse by Monday.”
“And you believed hitting me was better?”
“I didn’t hit you.”
Maya stared at him.
Vance corrected himself. “I grabbed you.”
“You threw the lamp.”
“It hit the wall.”
“You stood over me with a pen while I was on the floor.”
For a moment the careful meeting disappeared and the man from the bedroom returned. “You don’t understand what was at stake.”
Maya almost laughed. “That sentence is why we’re getting divorced.”
The meeting produced one useful detail before ending. Constance did not keep the Continuity Book at the estate after police became involved. Vance believed she gave it to Daniel Pierce, the family’s outside counsel, because Pierce had handled Charles’s probate and knew about the original side guarantees.
Rebecca immediately requested preservation from Pierce’s firm. His response came within an hour: he denied possession of any such binder and warned that accusations against counsel could result in sanctions.
Ortiz obtained records showing Constance visited Pierce’s office the morning after Maya entered the hospital.
A warrant followed.
Investigators found no blue binder, but they found a locked fireproof cabinet recently emptied. Pierce claimed it had contained privileged estate-planning files transferred to secure storage. When asked where, he invoked attorney-client privilege and refused to answer without court review.
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Vance had finally talked, yet the most important evidence remained out of reach. Worse, his cooperation ended that evening. His attorney announced that Vance would answer no further questions after Constance threatened to remove him from several family trusts and contest his control of Caldwell Heritage.
The mother who had spent years claiming everything was done for her son was now willing to destroy his inheritance to keep him silent.
