Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO KNEW MY HUSBAND'S SECRET
Victor arrived at 8:32 p.m.
I was standing near the staircase when the front doors opened.
He looked older than the photographs I remembered.
His hair had thinned, his face was drawn, and he carried a leather briefcase.
But his eyes were unmistakable.
Daniel walked toward him immediately.
"I told you not to come here."
Victor ignored him.
"I'm done waiting."
Evelyn stood up.
"Who is this?"
Victor looked around the room.
"Mrs. Brooks. You really don't recognize me?"
Her expression changed.
"Victor?"
He gave a humorless smile.
"Good to see you remember."
Daniel stepped between them.
"This isn't the place."
"Actually, I think it's exactly the place."
Victor looked directly at me.
"Emily Carter?"
"Yes."
"I owe you an explanation."
I crossed my arms.
"Then start talking."
He opened his briefcase and removed several folders.
"Three years ago, Daniel and I were partners in Mercer Capital. We built the company together. But when our biggest investment failed, Daniel blamed me for the losses."
"That's what he told me."
"Of course he did."
Victor placed a document on the table.
"The truth is that Daniel authorized several transactions without my knowledge. When the investments collapsed, he used my signature on documents I hadn't approved."
Daniel's face darkened.
"That's a lie."
Victor continued.
"I tried to challenge him. But he had already convinced the investors that I was responsible. I lost my position, my savings, and nearly everything I had built."
"Why didn't you report him?" I asked.
"I did. But the evidence was incomplete, and Daniel had powerful connections."
He opened another folder.
"Then I discovered something."
He showed me a series of bank transfers.
"Daniel had been receiving money from your investment company. I recognized the account because it appeared in the financial records of Mercer Capital."
I looked at Daniel.
He stared at the documents without speaking.
Victor continued.
"At first, I thought you were an investor. Then I discovered the transfers were being used to cover the company's debts."
"So you knew my money was supporting him?"
"I knew he was receiving it. I didn't know the full arrangement until recently."
"What do you want from me?"
"To stop him."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"Don't listen to this man. He's a disgraced former employee."
Victor turned toward him.
"And you're a fraud who has been pretending to be wealthy with your wife's money."
A few relatives shifted uncomfortably.
Evelyn suddenly spoke.
"Enough! This is a family matter."
Victor looked at her.
"Then perhaps you should hear what your son has been planning."
He removed a final document.
It was a series of emails between Daniel and Sterling Advisory Partners.
The correspondence discussed a financing arrangement secured against assets that appeared to belong to me.
The proposal had not been completed.
But the intention was clear.
Daniel had wanted control over my property and investment holdings.
I looked at my husband.
"Why?"
He finally answered.
"Because the company was dying."
"So you decided to take what belonged to me?"
"I was trying to save our future."
"You were preparing documents without my knowledge."
"I was going to explain everything."
"When? After I signed?"
His face tightened.
"Emily, you don't understand the pressure I was under."
I shook my head.
"You had three years to tell me the truth."
He looked away.
Victor placed one more sheet on the table.
"There's another problem."
Margaret had warned me not to make assumptions about the financial records.
Now I understood why.
Victor explained that Sterling Advisory Partners had been receiving money from Daniel's company, but he suspected the arrangement was being used to pay off an undisclosed debt.
"Whose debt?" I asked.
Victor hesitated.
"Daniel's."
My husband suddenly stepped forward.
"That's enough!"
Victor didn't move.
"Tell her about the warehouse."
The room went silent.
I looked between them.
"What warehouse?"
Daniel's expression was almost desperate.
Victor opened his briefcase again.
Inside was a photograph of a commercial property.
"This building was purchased through a company connected to Sterling Advisory Partners. It was supposed to be an investment project."
"And?"
"And last month, someone transferred a collection of financial records there."
"What records?"
Victor looked at Daniel.
"The original records from the year your grandfather died."
I felt the room tilt.
My grandfather, Thomas Carter, had been the person who left me the fortune that made my estate possible.
He had also been a major investor in several businesses before his death.
I had always believed his final years were peaceful.
"What does my grandfather have to do with this?"
Victor's voice became quieter.
"Everything."
He placed a photograph in front of me.
It showed my grandfather standing beside a much younger Daniel.
I stared at it.
"Where did you get this?"
"From the old company archive."
Daniel snatched the photograph.
"You're not supposed to have that!"
His reaction was more revealing than anything Victor had said.
I stepped closer.
"Daniel, when was this taken?"
He crumpled the edge of the photograph in his fist.
"Years ago."
"Why was my grandfather with you?"
He didn't answer.
Then Victor delivered the sentence that shattered the last remaining piece of my understanding.
"Emily, your husband didn't meet you by accident. He knew who your grandfather was before you ever went on your first date."
I looked at Daniel.
May you like
He was pale.
And for the first time since our wedding, I wondered whether the man I had married had ever loved me at all.
