Chapter 23 - THE FINAL PROBATE HEARING
The final evidentiary hearing focused on costs, fiduciary conduct, and the remaining request to confirm the amendment without reservation.
Sophronia’s lawyer used my worst facts first.
I changed the workshop lock without authority.
Yes.
I slapped Sophronia.
Yes.
I had accused her privately of trying to steal the estate before the accounting showed no missing principal.
Yes.
“Mr. Vale, do you tend to act before confirming facts?”
“Sometimes.”
Naomi closed her eyes.
The answer was true.
Then:
“Did your father know that?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t that why he hid the key from you too?”
That landed.
Dad’s note:
Dacre will start a war before probate exists.
Yes.
“So your father did not trust you either.”
“With estate administration? Probably not.”
Good.
I did not need to win Dad’s confidence retroactively.
Then Sophronia testified.
“Did you know the third amendment existed?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know it removed you as trustee?”
“I believed it did.”
“Did you know it addressed your advances?”
“Yes.”
“Why tell Dacre the old plan controlled?”
“I hoped Dad had destroyed the amendment or changed his mind.”
There.
Honest.
“Did you have evidence he had?”
“No.”
“Why search for the key?”
“To find the document.”
“What would you have done if you found it?”
Sophronia stared at her lawyer.
Then:
“Read it.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t know.”
The judge asked:
“Would you have given it to probate counsel?”
A long pause.
“I want to say yes.”
Not the same as yes.
Then:
“What do you believe now?”
“That I should have.”
There.
No dramatic confession of planned destruction.
No evidence supported one.
The breach was concealment of known facts and attempt to preserve control through uncertainty.
May you like
Serious enough.
Not more than that.
