{"id":19432,"date":"2026-10-24T16:38:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T09:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/?p=19432"},"modified":"2026-10-24T16:38:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T09:38:51","slug":"my-mother-trapped-me-with-five-lawyers-to-steal-my-inheritance-she-had-no-idea-i-was-a-military-intelligence-colonel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/?p=19432","title":{"rendered":"My Mother Trapped Me With Five Lawyers to Steal My Inheritance\u2014She Had No Idea I Was a Military Intelligence Colonel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Part 1: The Dead Doctor Who Signed My Father\u2019s Death Certificate<br \/>\nThe first thing that caught my attention was the name attached to a mysterious $250,000 wire transfer. It was Dr. Harold Reeves, my father\u2019s cardiologist, whose signature appeared on his death certificate. There was just one terrifying problem: according to official records, Dr. Reeves had died in a boating accident six months before my father passed away.<\/p>\n<p>I was sitting at my desk at 6:30 in the morning when Margaret Chen\u2019s email arrived, containing financial documents that made my coffee go cold. Margaret was a forensic accountant and former federal investigator who had spent months helping me uncover a massive fraud scheme involving my family.<\/p>\n<p>When she called seventeen minutes later, I demanded an explanation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReeves supposedly drowned off Cape Cod,\u201d Margaret said. \u201cThey never recovered his body, but someone kept his medical license active and continued prescribing your father\u2019s heart medication under his name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you telling me someone forged the prescriptions?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the death certificate,\u201d she replied. \u201cAlyssa, there\u2019s something worse. The money came through a Delaware corporation controlled by the Gregory Prescott Family Trust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My father had established that trust years earlier, but the person listed as trustee wasn\u2019t him.<\/p>\n<p>It was my mother.<\/p>\n<p>My name is Alyssa Prescott. I\u2019m thirty-four years old, and I\u2019d spent twelve years serving in the United States Army, including two deployments to Afghanistan. I\u2019d faced danger overseas, but nothing in my military experience had prepared me for the betrayal waiting inside my own family.<\/p>\n<p>Seven months earlier, my father, Gregory Prescott, had supposedly died of a massive heart attack in his Providence home. He was sixty-seven and had struggled with heart problems for two years, so his sudden death hadn\u2019t raised many questions.<\/p>\n<p>Except in my mind.<\/p>\n<p>Dad had built Prescott Regional Builders from a small construction operation into one of Rhode Island\u2019s most successful commercial development companies. He\u2019d worked tirelessly for decades, and although his marriage to my mother had ended when I was nineteen, he\u2019d remained devoted to me.<\/p>\n<p>My mother, Florence, had remarried Christopher Vale, a charming businessman whose polished appearance concealed an appetite for money. Christopher also had a twenty-six-year-old son, Lucas, who worked in the restaurant division of Dad\u2019s company.<\/p>\n<p>When Dad\u2019s will was read, I discovered he\u2019d left me our childhood home on Benefit Street and a controlling interest in his business. My mother immediately protested, insisting that Dad had promised those assets to her.<\/p>\n<p>Three weeks later, she challenged the will, claiming that my father had been mentally incompetent and that I\u2019d manipulated him while serving overseas.<\/p>\n<p>I was so exhausted by grief that I nearly surrendered everything rather than fight her. Then Arthur Delgado, Dad\u2019s longtime attorney, summoned me to his office and handed me a blue leather ledger containing eight years of handwritten financial records.<\/p>\n<p>The pages documented millions disappearing through fraudulent vendors, inflated contracts, and shell corporations. Every trail eventually led to Florence and Christopher, and Dad had apparently been preparing to expose them before his sudden death.<\/p>\n<p>With Margaret\u2019s help, I turned the evidence over to the FBI. Four months later, my mother and Christopher were arrested for stealing approximately $23 million, and Florence was awaiting trial in a Rhode Island correctional facility.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d believed justice was finally within reach.<\/p>\n<p>But now Margaret had uncovered payments to a supposedly dead physician, forged medical records, and a trust bearing my mother\u2019s name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy would she murder him?\u201d I asked. \u201cShe was already stealing millions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Margaret\u2019s answer made my stomach tighten.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause your father discovered the fraud, Alyssa. And someone knew he was about to expose everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stared at my father\u2019s photograph, remembering how he\u2019d promised we\u2019d have lunch together when I returned home on leave.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time, I wondered whether his heart had failed naturally, or whether someone in our family had deliberately stopped it.<\/p>\n<p>Part 2: My Mother Revealed a Secret That Had Been Buried for Thirty Years<br \/>\nThe following morning, I drove to the Rhode Island Women\u2019s Correctional Facility in Cranston, determined to confront my mother about the suspicious payments connected to my father\u2019s death. I had already uncovered her involvement in a $23 million embezzlement scheme, but the possibility that she\u2019d also arranged his murder was almost impossible to comprehend.<\/p>\n<p>When Florence entered the visitation room, I barely recognized her. The elegant woman who\u2019d once appeared everywhere in designer clothing and pearl earrings now wore prison scrubs, and her gray roots and exhausted expression made her look decades older.<\/p>\n<p>She sat across from me without offering a smile.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHello, Alyssa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you kill Dad?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>My mother stared at me in disbelief before anger flashed across her face. Then, unexpectedly, her expression changed to genuine confusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat? No! I stole from Gregory, and I lied to him for years. But I never killed him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I told her about Dr. Harold Reeves, the supposedly deceased cardiologist whose name appeared on Dad\u2019s prescriptions and death certificate. When I explained that a trust listing her as trustee had financed the suspicious transactions, the color drained from her face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat trust?\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Gregory Prescott Family Trust. Your name is on the documents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGregory would never have made me trustee of anything. Someone forged my name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For several moments, she stared at the metal table, her hands trembling. When she finally looked up, the fear in her eyes was unmistakable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAsk your Uncle Robert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I froze.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have an Uncle Robert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My mother said nothing more, and I left the prison with more questions than I\u2019d brought inside. Throughout my childhood, Dad had always been described as an only child, and I\u2019d never heard anyone mention a brother.<\/p>\n<p>I immediately called Margaret, who searched public records while I drove toward Providence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRobert Prescott,\u201d she finally reported. \u201cBorn in 1961, five years after your father. Officially died in a car accident in New Hampshire in 1994.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas his body recovered?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Margaret hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. His car went into a river, but they never found him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The resemblance to Dr. Reeves\u2019s disappearance was impossible to ignore. Two men had supposedly died in separate accidents, neither body had been recovered, and both names were now connected to my father\u2019s suspicious death.<\/p>\n<p>I decided to visit Arthur Delgado, hoping he\u2019d explain why Dad had hidden the existence of his younger brother. But when I arrived at his law office the next morning, his receptionist, Kayla, looked frightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Delgado hasn\u2019t been here for three days,\u201d she explained. \u201cHe said he was going to his cabin in Vermont, but his daughter called yesterday. He never arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My military instincts immediately told me something was wrong. When I asked whether Arthur had left any instructions, Kayla retrieved a sealed envelope from her desk drawer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said to give you this if anyone came looking for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I opened the envelope inside my car and recognized Arthur\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n<p>His letter confirmed my worst fear: my father hadn\u2019t died from a natural heart attack. Someone had slowly poisoned him by altering his medication over several months, carefully exploiting his existing heart condition to disguise the murder.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur insisted that my mother hadn\u2019t been responsible.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he identified the killer as Robert Prescott, my father\u2019s supposedly deceased brother, who had apparently spent thirty years living under another identity.<\/p>\n<p>The letter also revealed that Robert knew Arthur possessed the blue ledger and had begun hunting anyone who could expose him.<\/p>\n<p>Near the bottom, Arthur included one final instruction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at the photographs from your grandmother\u2019s eightieth birthday party. There\u2019s a tall, gray-haired man standing near the garden. That\u2019s Robert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He ended with a warning that made my blood run cold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRobert wants the company, Alyssa. He will kill anyone who stands in his way. Please, run if you have to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I folded the letter carefully and stared through my windshield.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur was missing, my father\u2019s murderer was still free, and somewhere in our family photographs was the face of a man who\u2019d spent decades hiding in plain sight.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of running, I started my car and drove straight to the house where my father had died.<\/p>\n<p>Part 3: The Stranger in My Father\u2019s Family Photographs<br \/>\nThe old Prescott house stood on Benefit Street in Providence, its redbrick walls and white-trimmed windows looking exactly as they had throughout my childhood. I hadn\u2019t spent a single night there since Dad\u2019s funeral, and walking through the front door brought back memories I\u2019d spent months trying to avoid.<\/p>\n<p>My father had taught me chess in his study, helped me with school projects at the kitchen table, and encouraged me to pursue a military career despite my mother\u2019s objections. Now I was searching the same house for evidence that his own brother had spent decades planning his destruction.<\/p>\n<p>I climbed into the attic, where Grandma Prescott had stored thirty boxes of photographs, each carefully labeled in her handwriting. After nearly two hours, I located the album from her eightieth birthday celebration in June 2009.<\/p>\n<p>The photographs showed a cheerful backyard gathering beneath white tents and strings of paper lanterns. Dad stood beside Grandma in a blue blazer, while nineteen-year-old me appeared in an uncomfortable sundress during my first summer home from West Point.<\/p>\n<p>Then, on the sixth page, I noticed a stranger standing near the rose garden.<\/p>\n<p>He was tall, with gray hair and an expensive suit, holding a wineglass while the other guests celebrated. Unlike everyone around him, he wasn\u2019t smiling or speaking to anyone; his attention seemed fixed entirely on my father.<\/p>\n<p>I studied his face beneath the attic light, searching for a family resemblance. The sharp jawline, deep-set eyes, and distinctive curve of his mouth were so familiar that my breath caught.<\/p>\n<p>He looked like Dad.<\/p>\n<p>I photographed the image and sent it to Margaret, who called eleven minutes later with information that changed everything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found a match,\u201d she said. \u201cHis current name is Richard Harmon. He\u2019s the founder and CEO of Harmon Industries, a prominent businessman with positions on several corporate boards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich boards?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Margaret hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlyssa, he\u2019s been a director of Prescott Regional Builders for eleven years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I sat motionless, remembering Richard Harmon at Dad\u2019s funeral. He\u2019d shaken my hand, praised my father\u2019s accomplishments, and offered condolences with the practiced sincerity of a respected family friend.<\/p>\n<p>All along, he\u2019d been my father\u2019s supposedly dead brother.<\/p>\n<p>Margaret believed Robert had staged his disappearance in 1994, established a new identity, and gradually built enough influence to enter Dad\u2019s business. Once inside, he\u2019d apparently exploited my mother\u2019s greed and Christopher\u2019s ambition, using their fraudulent transactions to create financial chaos while protecting himself.<\/p>\n<p>When Dad discovered the embezzlement and prepared to contact federal investigators, Robert had a powerful reason to silence him. By arranging suspicious medical payments through a trust falsely connected to Florence, he could also ensure that any murder investigation would point toward a woman already facing serious fraud charges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat about Dr. Reeves?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI suspect Robert forced him into hiding and used his identity to manipulate the prescriptions,\u201d Margaret replied. \u201cWe\u2019re still trying to establish exactly how.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then her voice changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been working with investigators to locate Harmon. His phone and vehicle were tracked to Providence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBenefit Street. He\u2019s been at your father\u2019s house for almost an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked toward the attic window, suddenly aware of how silent the house had become. I\u2019d been searching through photographs for three hours and hadn\u2019t heard anyone enter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMargaret,\u201d I whispered. \u201cI\u2019m inside that house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGet out immediately! I\u2019m calling the police.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I ended the call and carefully descended the attic stairs. Twelve years of Army experience had taught me how to move quietly through unfamiliar buildings, but nothing could steady the anger rising inside me.<\/p>\n<p>The second floor was dark, and the hallway below was almost completely silent. Only one room showed any light.<\/p>\n<p>My father\u2019s study.<\/p>\n<p>I approached the partially open door and saw a tall man standing behind Dad\u2019s desk, holding a familiar blue leather ledger. It was Arthur\u2019s duplicate copy, the one Robert had apparently taken after making the elderly attorney disappear.<\/p>\n<p>Before I could speak, the man addressed me without turning around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHello, Alyssa. I was wondering how long it would take you to figure everything out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He slowly faced me, revealing the same unmistakable features I\u2019d seen in the photograph.<\/p>\n<p>And when I demanded to know where Arthur was, Robert smiled and said, \u201cHe\u2019s alive. For now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Part 4: My Father\u2019s Killer Was Waiting for Me With a Syringe<br \/>\nRobert Prescott stood behind my father\u2019s desk, holding the blue ledger that had exposed years of financial corruption. His face was disturbingly familiar, with the same sharp features and deep-set eyes as Dad, but there was something cold and calculating about the way he watched me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere\u2019s Arthur?\u201d I demanded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomewhere safe enough for now,\u201d Robert replied. \u201cHe\u2019s alive, although that depends on how cooperative he decides to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I forced myself to remain calm, despite the anger building inside me. Standing before me was the man who had apparently murdered his own brother, manipulated my family, and spent decades constructing an elaborate scheme to steal everything Dad had built.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou killed my father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robert didn\u2019t bother denying it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did what was necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was your brother!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was never my brother!\u201d Robert shouted, suddenly losing his polished composure. \u201cGregory was always the favorite. The brilliant son, the successful businessman, the one who inherited everything while I was constantly told to become more like him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained that he\u2019d deliberately driven his car into a New Hampshire river in 1994 before disappearing and creating a new identity. Over the following thirty years, he\u2019d built a business empire, entered Dad\u2019s professional circle, and patiently waited for an opportunity to destroy him.<\/p>\n<p>Robert admitted that he\u2019d encouraged Florence and Christopher\u2019s fraudulent activities, allowing them to steal millions while keeping his own involvement concealed. When Dad discovered the scheme and prepared to contact federal investigators, Robert decided that murder was the simplest solution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour father died believing everyone around him had betrayed him,\u201d Robert said with a cruel smile. \u201cThat was the most satisfying part.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My hands tightened into fists, but I kept my expression controlled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did you poison him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGregory already had a weak heart,\u201d he replied. \u201cHe took several medications every day, so I arranged for one of them to be replaced. Small doses over five months. Nobody suspected anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also confirmed that Dr. Reeves had been forced into hiding, allowing Robert to exploit the physician\u2019s identity and medical credentials. The trust documents naming my mother had been forged to ensure that investigators would blame her if anyone questioned Dad\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>Then Robert reached inside his jacket and withdrew a syringe.<\/p>\n<p>The needle glinted beneath the green desk lamp.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour father died of a heart attack,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now his grieving daughter will suffer the same unfortunate fate. It runs in the family, after all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He stepped toward me, apparently expecting me to freeze.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, I moved first.<\/p>\n<p>I caught his wrist before he could bring the syringe close, twisting his arm until the needle fell beneath the desk. Robert slammed me against the bookshelves, sending my father\u2019s treasured books crashing onto the floor, but I recovered and struck him hard across the jaw.<\/p>\n<p>He stumbled backward, then charged again.<\/p>\n<p>I grabbed a brass fireplace poker and struck his shoulder, forcing him away from me. He lunged once more, and our struggle carried us through the French doors behind Dad\u2019s desk, shattering the glass as we fell onto the stone patio.<\/p>\n<p>Cold air rushed into my lungs as we fought across the wet ground. Robert managed to grab my throat, but I drove my knee into his ribs, broke his grip, and pinned his arm behind his back.<\/p>\n<p>Then I heard police sirens approaching.<\/p>\n<p>Within moments, flashing lights swept across the backyard, and armed officers rushed toward us. Margaret had alerted the authorities and helped them locate me before Robert could carry out his plan.<\/p>\n<p>As officers handcuffed him, Robert stared at me with an expression I couldn\u2019t quite understand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re just like Gregory,\u201d he whispered. \u201cYou never know when to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d I replied. \u201cDad trusted you. I knew better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two days later, investigators discovered Arthur Delgado alive in the basement of an abandoned rental property in Woonsocket. He was severely dehydrated and exhausted, but he\u2019d survived.<\/p>\n<p>When I visited him in the hospital, he shook his head at me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told you to run, Alyssa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour father wouldn\u2019t have listened either,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n<p>Then Arthur revealed something that shattered what little composure I had left.<\/p>\n<p>Dad had planned to tell me everything when I returned home on leave in April. He\u2019d even chosen a restaurant where we would meet and discuss the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>But my father had died on March 14, three weeks before my scheduled arrival.<\/p>\n<p>I held Arthur\u2019s hand, struggling to accept how close Dad had come to exposing the truth himself.<\/p>\n<p>And although Robert was finally behind bars, the most important battle was still ahead: proving in court that the respected businessman was actually a murderer who had been declared dead thirty years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Part 5: The Final Secret My Father Left Behind<br \/>\nThree weeks after Robert\u2019s arrest, Dr. Harold Reeves walked into the FBI\u2019s Boston office and confessed that he\u2019d spent the previous year hiding under a false identity. Robert had threatened his daughter and granddaughter, forcing him to fake his drowning and disappear while his medical credentials were used to poison my father.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew someone might die,\u201d Reeves admitted through tears. \u201cBut I was too frightened to stop him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His testimony became a crucial part of one of Rhode Island\u2019s most sensational murder trials. Reporters crowded the courthouse as prosecutors presented Dad\u2019s blue ledger, forged trust documents, suspicious prescriptions, and evidence connecting Richard Harmon to Robert Prescott, the man who had supposedly died thirty years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur testified about his kidnapping, while Margaret explained the elaborate financial scheme. Then my mother took the witness stand and revealed that Robert had approached her fifteen years earlier, encouraging her to steal from Gregory\u2019s company and introducing her to Christopher.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was greedy and selfish,\u201d Florence confessed. \u201cBut I never knew Richard Harmon was Gregory\u2019s brother, and I didn\u2019t know he intended to kill him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She turned toward me, tears streaming down her face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Alyssa. I\u2019m so sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I couldn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n<p>After four hours of deliberation, the jury found Robert guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, fraud, and conspiracy. The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole, and when officers escorted him away, he looked directly at me.<\/p>\n<p>I held his gaze until he turned away.<\/p>\n<p>My mother received eight years for her involvement in the fraud, while Christopher was sentenced to twelve. Lucas, who had unknowingly worked in the restaurant division throughout the scheme, was cleared of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>After sentencing, Lucas approached me outside the courthouse and apologized for everything that had happened. I reminded him that Dad had specifically described him as honest and hardworking in the ledger, then offered him the opportunity to remain with the company.<\/p>\n<p>He accepted immediately.<\/p>\n<p>A year later, the Prescott house on Benefit Street had been restored, including the French doors shattered during my confrontation with Robert. The company had been reorganized as Prescott Family Enterprises, with independent auditors, a new board, and stronger financial safeguards.<\/p>\n<p>Margaret helped establish the new oversight procedures, while Arthur returned from retirement to supervise the company\u2019s whistleblower program. Lucas successfully expanded the restaurant division and named one of its new locations Gregory\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>I also made the difficult decision to leave the Army and take responsibility for Dad\u2019s business. After twelve years of military service, beginning a civilian life felt unfamiliar, but I wanted to protect the legacy he\u2019d trusted me to preserve.<\/p>\n<p>My mother continued writing from prison every two weeks, sending apologies and asking about the house. I read every letter and kept them in a shoebox, although I wasn\u2019t ready to respond.<\/p>\n<p>Some wounds required more than words.<\/p>\n<p>During the investigation, I\u2019d also grown close to Marcus Chen, Margaret\u2019s son and a former Navy SEAL who worked as a security consultant. We\u2019d bonded over military experiences, courthouse coffee, and the strange loneliness of returning home after years of service.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, friendship became love.<\/p>\n<p>One morning, Marcus joined me on the porch overlooking Narragansett Bay and handed me a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou won, Alyssa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe won,\u201d I corrected him. \u201cAll of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, we entered Dad\u2019s study, where his unfinished chess game still rested on the desk. Above the fireplace hung the photograph from Grandma\u2019s eightieth birthday, including Robert standing alone near the rose garden.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus wondered why I\u2019d kept my father\u2019s murderer in the picture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause removing him wouldn\u2019t change what happened,\u201d I explained. \u201cI need to remember the truth, even the terrible parts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beside the photograph hung the final page of Dad\u2019s blue ledger, written twelve days before his death.<\/p>\n<p>I know something is wrong. I don\u2019t know who yet. But Alyssa will finish this if I can\u2019t. She\u2019s never walked away from doing what\u2019s right. I\u2019m prouder of her than I\u2019ve ever told her.<\/p>\n<p>I read those words every morning, knowing Dad had trusted me with something more important than his house, company, or fortune.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d entrusted me with the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus gently rested his hand against my back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happens now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked at Dad\u2019s handwriting one final time before turning toward the man I loved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow,\u201d I said, smiling, \u201cwe finally get to live.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part 1: The Dead Doctor Who Signed My Father\u2019s Death Certificate The first thing that caught my attention was the name attached to a mysterious &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-inspiration","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19433,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19432\/revisions\/19433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}