Chapter 6 - The Unraveling
Alexis left Kevin that very evening.
According to Clara, who monitored the corporate social circles, Alexis packed her designer bags, notified the leasing office that she was removing her name from the downtown penthouse lease, and moved into an extended-stay hotel in Overland Park. The illusion of Kevin’s great inheritance had shattered into a thousand jagged pieces.
Left with the entirety of the luxury penthouse rent—amounting to four thousand eight hundred dollars a month—and only a fraction of his twenty-five thousand dollar settlement remaining after clearing overdue car payments, Kevin was sinking fast.
Then came the second blow: Kevin’s employer, a medical device distribution firm where he served as regional sales manager, initiated an internal audit. It turned out Kevin had not only defrauded his father; he had been submitting fraudulent travel expense reports for his trips with Alexis, billing the company for luxury dinners and resort stays under the guise of client entertainment.
On a Monday morning, Marilyn Freeman called me into her office for an urgent update.
"Amanda, Kevin’s corporate counsel has formally notified us that Kevin was terminated for cause as of eight o’clock this morning," Marilyn said, sliding a letter across the table. "They are demanding restitution of forty-six thousand dollars in falsified expense reports, or they will refer the matter to the state attorney general."
I leaned back, sighing deeply. "He’s going to come after Ruby’s trust even harder now, isn't he?"
"He has already tried," Marilyn said, a grim smile touching her lips. "His mother, Joyce, hired an aggressive probate attorney out of Wichita yesterday. They filed an emergency motion to invalidate Donald’s living trust, alleging undue influence on your part, and petitioning for Kevin to be appointed guardian of Ruby’s estate."
"Can they win?"
"Not a chance in hell," Marilyn said firmly. "Donald anticipated this exact sequence of events. He didn't just leave a trust agreement, Amanda. He left a video recording."
My breath hitched. "A video?"
"Donald recorded a sixty-minute testamentary deposition in the presence of his doctors, his pastor, and myself," Marilyn revealed. "In that recording, he lays out Kevin's entire pattern of behavior over the last decade. He explicitly commands that under no circumstances should Kevin ever have access to Ruby’s capital. But there is something else."
Marilyn opened a sealed safe in the corner of her office and pulled out a small, velvet-lined box containing a set of brass keys.
May you like
"What are those?" I asked.
"Donald owned a private storage unit out near Lawrence," Marilyn explained softly. "No one in the family knew about it except Donald and me. Inside that unit are Donald's personal woodworking tools, his private journals, and a safety deposit key to an account that Donald set aside specifically for you, Amanda. Not Ruby. For you."
