Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO SIGNED THE DIVORCE
The next morning, Emma asked to see the divorce file.
Adrian brought every page.
No excuses.
No missing documents.
They sat in his library beneath tall windows while rain moved across Lake Michigan.
Emma read for almost an hour.
Then she found it.
A letter attached to an early draft.
It bore Adrian’s signature.
Emma read the paragraph twice.
Then looked up.
“You wrote that I should receive the house.”
“Yes.”
“And twelve million dollars.”
“Yes.”
“And lifetime security.”
“Yes.”
“I received none of that.”
Adrian’s expression sharpened.
“What?”
Emma pushed the final agreement toward him.
“My settlement was eight hundred thousand dollars. I refused most of it and took enough to pay the lease and restart my life.”
Adrian grabbed the document.
His eyes moved rapidly.
“This isn’t the agreement I approved.”
Nathan, standing nearby, stepped forward.
Adrian opened a locked drawer and removed his archived copy.
Different terms.
Different pages.
Same signatures.
Someone had substituted the final agreement after Adrian signed.
Emma stared at him.
“How?”
“Mercer.”
Nathan shook his head.
“Maybe. But changing a filed agreement requires more than one lawyer.”
Adrian called Mercer.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Nathan immediately sent men to his home.
Emma watched Adrian pace.
“Stop.”
He did.
“You’re making me nervous.”
He sat.
That alone told Emma how hard he was trying.
Thirty minutes later, Nathan received the call.
Mercer was gone.
His home was empty.
Passport missing.
Family gone.
But his office safe contained something unexpected.
A flash drive.
Nathan inserted it into an isolated laptop.
There was one audio recording.
Mercer’s voice filled the library.
“If you are hearing this, then I either found enough courage to tell Adrian the truth or someone decided I knew too much.”
Adrian became still.
Mercer continued.
“Carlo Moretti ordered me to alter the divorce documents. But Carlo was not acting alone.”
Emma leaned forward.
“The other person had access to Adrian’s private accounts, digital signatures and security schedules. I never learned their identity. Carlo referred to them only as Saint.”
Nathan looked at Adrian.
Neither recognized the name.
The recording continued.
“Saint wanted Emma Bennett removed permanently. Carlo refused. He said exile was enough. They argued repeatedly.”
Emma’s skin went cold.
Adrian reached toward her.
Stopped.
She took his hand herself.
His fingers closed around hers.
Mercer’s final words came through the speaker.
“If Emma ever becomes pregnant with Adrian’s child, Saint will act. The trust makes that child the greatest threat to whoever has been stealing from Moretti Holdings.”
The recording ended.
Silence.
Nathan spoke first.
“Stealing?”
Adrian immediately understood.
“Get forensic accounting into every subsidiary.”
Nathan nodded.
“Quietly.”
“Especially anything Carlo supervises.”
Nathan left.
Emma slowly withdrew her hand.
“So our daughter is in danger because someone is stealing money?”
“Possibly billions.”
She stared at him.
“Your family is exhausting.”
“That may be the nicest description anyone has ever used.”
Hours later, the forensic team found the first anomaly.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Money had been siphoned from Moretti construction companies through false vendors for almost eleven years.
Total estimated theft: $480 million.
Carlo had approved some transactions.
But not all.
Several began before he gained authority.
Adrian stared at the dates.
The earliest transaction had occurred while his father was still alive.
“This goes back to my parents.”
Nathan nodded grimly.
Adrian’s parents had died in what police called a highway accident fifteen years earlier.
For the first time, Adrian wondered whether it had been an accident at all.
Emma found him alone in the chapel behind the estate that evening.
He sat in the last pew.
“I haven’t been in here since the funeral,” he said.
Emma sat beside him.
“My father trusted Carlo.”
“So did you.”
“I built half my life on believing my uncle saved me.”
“You were twenty-one.”
“I should have seen it.”
Emma looked at him.
“You always do that.”
“What?”
“Turn everyone else’s crimes into your failures.”
He glanced at her.
“You did it with me too.”
His face tightened.
“You decided someone threatening me meant you had failed to protect me. So you punished yourself by losing me before they could take me.”
Adrian looked toward the altar.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“You were controlling the way you lost me.”
That struck him.
Emma placed his hand against her belly.
Their daughter shifted beneath his palm.
“This is what you have to learn before she arrives.”
He whispered, “What?”
“You cannot protect someone by making every choice for them.”
His eyes lifted to hers.
“I’m trying.”
“I know.”
Those two words almost undid him.
Then the chapel door opened.
Nathan entered.
“We found Saint.”
Adrian stood.
“Who?”
Nathan looked unusually disturbed.
“It isn’t Carlo.”
“I know that.”
“You’re not going to like this.”
He placed a photograph on the pew.
Emma recognized the woman immediately.
Elegant silver hair.
Perfect posture.
A face Adrian had known since childhood.
His godmother.
Evelyn Moretti.
Carlo’s wife.
The woman who had comforted Adrian at his parents’ funeral.
The woman who had sat beside Emma while she chose her wedding dress.
The woman who had once told Emma she was the daughter she never had.
Nathan’s voice was quiet.
“Saint is Evelyn.”
Emma looked at Adrian.
He had gone completely pale.
Then Nathan added the part that was worse.
“We intercepted a message she sent thirty minutes ago.”
“To whom?”
“Dr. Sloan.”
Emma’s hand flew to her belly.
Nathan looked directly at her.
May you like
“She knows your next appointment.”
And the appointment was tomorrow morning.
