The Ultrasound Photo

Someone had parked a new cherry-red convertible across my reserved space. It sat crooked over both white lines. I knew the car. Chloe Harper drove it to class and spent most lectures checking her lipstick instead of taking notes. Before I reached the horn, Chloe climbed out with Mia behind her. She crossed to my Bentley and slapped a sheet of paper against the driver's window. An ultrasound. "Get out, Serena. We need to discuss my future. Yours too." I lowered the window. "You're blocking my space, Chloe. In class, it's still Professor Vance." Mia laughed. "That won't last. Chloe's moving up, and you're moving out." Chloe tapped the image with one polished nail. "I'm ten weeks pregnant. It's a boy, the heir to the Vance fortune." She pitched her voice high enough to turn heads across the lot. I stared at her. "Arthur Vance was cremated three years ago. Did he manage this through a séance?" Her smile slipped. "Don't play dumb, you old hag. Arthur is alive. He told me you're the barren wife he keeps out of pity. He's sick of you." I nearly laughed. "Whoever you're sleeping with, his name isn't Arthur Vance." "Oh, really?" Chloe pushed her phone through the open window. On the smart-home screen, an icon read: *Backup Key: Crestwood Hills Estate.* "Arthur gave it to me last night. The real lady of the house is moving in tomorrow. You have twenty-four hours to pack your orthopedic shoes and leave my mansion." My hand stopped on the window control. The key was genuine. Arthur had built that failsafe himself and stored it on one encrypted drive inside his private safe. I had sealed the safe after his death. No one should have been able to open it. Somebody had taken Arthur's name and one of his keys. He had found a way into the estate records, convinced Chloe that a dead man was her lover and let her wave the proof of his theft at me. This had gone past a student's clumsy attempt at blackmail. Someone had been inside Arthur's things, including the few boxes I had ordered the estate staff to leave sealed. Chloe caught my pause and grinned. "Scared, old woman? Good. My son will own everything you thought was yours." I looked from the icon to her face. She was waiting for me to argue. Instead, I smiled. "Fine. Come tomorrow and try the key." For half a second, she had no answer. Then she tossed her hair and held up the phone for Mia to admire. "At least you know when you've lost. I'll be there at noon. Get your dusty old-lady smell out before I arrive." She and Mia walked off laughing. I stayed behind the wheel and listened to the Bentley idle. Then I opened the estate security app. I scheduled the stolen key to work exactly once, switched every interior camera to evidence retention and left the front gate ready for noon.