Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF KINDNESS
Arthur Vale asked me to meet him at a diner near the old store.
I refused.
He chuckled, as though I were a stubborn employee arguing over a schedule.
“Then I suppose you won't mind if the university receives certain unpleasant information about your daughters.”
“What information?”
“That depends on how cooperative you become.”
The call ended.
Sophie wanted to drive straight to his office.
Lily insisted we preserve the call log first.
Emma, who had been silent, said the words that finally stopped our argument.
“We are acting exactly like he wants.”
We contacted a lawyer named Marisol Grant, recommended by a professor who had helped the girls register the foundation.
She arrived before sunset carrying a legal pad and the kind of calm that made panic feel embarrassing.
“Don't confront him,” she advised.
“Don't destroy anything, and don't assume a frightening recording proves every claim attached to it.”
That distinction mattered.
For the first time all day, someone was willing to separate facts from fear.
Marisol arranged secure copies of the files and promised to seek an independent review of the medical documents.
She also examined the new foundation's papers.
A frown appeared between her eyebrows.
“Who provided the initial donation?”
“The university matched our fundraising,” Lily said.
“And an anonymous donor gave the rest.”
“How much?”
Emma looked proud and frightened at once.
“Four hundred thousand dollars.”
Marisol set down her pen.
“Anonymous donations that large need verification.”
The girls had believed the gift came from a grateful alumnus.
But the transfer originated with a holding company whose registered agent shared an address with Arthur Vale's former accountant.
“You didn't establish a foundation,” Marisol said quietly.
“You may have been invited into a trap.”
Before midnight the university emailed Lily to announce a temporary review of the fund.
An hour later a journalist called to ask whether the Carter sisters had knowingly accepted stolen money.
The last message arrived at 2:13 in the morning.
It contained a photograph of Rebecca, taken that day, standing outside a grocery store.
Underneath were four words.
May you like
SHE IS STILL WAITING.
