Chapter 8 - The Husband Who Might Have Been the VillainGrant spent the next forty-eight hours trying to understand the documents.
His lawyers examined every transaction.
His investigators traced the transfers.
His accountant reviewed the company's archived records.
The result was worse than he expected.
Several fraudulent accounts had been opened under his name.
Some carried his electronic signature.
Others had been authorized using credentials assigned to his office.
Grant remembered none of them.
Lydia found him at dawn, sitting alone in the study.
“You haven't slept.”
He didn't look up.
“I might have destroyed your family.”
“You don't know that.”
“I signed the documents.”
“You said you didn't understand them.”
“That doesn't erase the damage.”
Lydia sat across from him.
“Did you know my father?”
“I met him twice.”
“Did he ever accuse you?”
Grant hesitated.
“Once.”
Lydia's heart sank.
“When?”
“Six months before he died. He came to my office and told me that one day I would have to answer for what my family had done.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought he was trying to extort me.”
Lydia stood.
“And when you paid his debts?”
“I believed I was protecting you.”
“Or protecting yourself?”
Grant looked at her.
He had no answer.
That afternoon, Lydia received a call from Thomas Vale.
He was alive.
He had escaped the men who attacked him and was hiding in a safe apartment.
“I need to tell you something,” he said.
“About Grant?”
“About your father.”
Lydia closed the study door.
“What?”
“Daniel knew Grant hadn't authorized the fraud. He found proof that the signatures were copied.”
“Then why did he accuse him?”
“He didn't. He wanted Grant to investigate.”
Lydia looked toward the desk.
“Who did?”
Thomas lowered his voice.
“Richard Holloway's personal attorney. He created the documents and used Grant's credentials.”
“Why?”
“Because he needed someone young enough to be manipulated and powerful enough to take the blame.”
“Who was the attorney?”
Thomas gave her a name.
Lydia recognized it.
Victor Lang.
The man who had handled her marriage contract.
The man who had negotiated her father's debts.
The man who had assured her that everything was legitimate.
She ended the call and went straight to Grant.
“We need to talk.”
When she told him, he stood so abruptly that his chair fell backward.
“Victor?”
“He arranged our marriage.”
Grant's expression darkened.
“He's been my attorney for fifteen years.”
“Maybe that's why he knew exactly how to control everything.”
Grant immediately called his investigator.
But Victor had already disappeared.
His office was empty.
His apartment had been cleared.
His phone was disconnected.
Then a courier arrived with a sealed envelope.
Inside was a copy of the original marriage agreement.
Only it wasn't the version Lydia had signed.
This one contained an additional page.
A page stating that if Lydia discovered the truth about Daniel Mercer's case, her husband was authorized to transfer her to a private rehabilitation facility for her own protection.
The signature at the bottom belonged to Grant.
Lydia stared at it.
“Did you sign this?”
Grant looked sick.
“No.”
But the signature was unmistakably his.
The envelope contained one more item.
A photograph of Victor Lang standing beside Celeste.
And written beneath it:
Your marriage was never supposed to last a year. It was supposed to keep Lydia quiet until the evidence disappeared.
Lydia stepped away from Grant.
“Tell me you didn't know.”
“I didn't.”
“Then who arranged it?”
Grant looked at the photograph.
For the first time, he understood the true danger.
The marriage had not been a coincidence.
Someone had deliberately brought Lydia into his home.
May you like
Someone had wanted her close enough to watch.
And someone had expected her to remain silent.
