I spent most of the night staring at the recommendation letter.
Six weeks before Daniel and I met.
Robert had introduced him to my grandfather's company.
Robert had helped him obtain financing.
Robert had known about the succession plan.
And Robert had later become the person my grandfather no longer trusted.
The dates were beginning to form a pattern.
I wrote them on a sheet of paper.
Daniel introduced to Hawthorne Holdings.
Daniel receives financing.
Daniel meets me.
Daniel and I marry.
Daniel begins asking questions about my grandfather's assets.
Richard becomes involved.
Tiffany appears.
My grandfather investigates.
My grandfather dies.
Daniel files for divorce.
I stared at the page.
It looked less like a marriage timeline than a business plan.
Marcus found me in the library at seven in the morning.
“You didn't sleep.”
“No.”
He looked at the dates.
“You've been working.”
“I need to know whether Daniel was placed in my life.”
Marcus didn't answer immediately.
“It's possible.”
“That's not enough.”
“No.”
“I need proof.”
“We'll find it.”
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered.
“What?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“You already did.”
“There's something I didn't tell you.”
I glanced at Marcus.
“Go on.”
“Robert introduced me to your grandfather.”
“I know.”
Daniel went silent.
“How?”
“Records.”
“Then you know about the recommendation.”
“Yes.”
“I didn't ask him to do it.”
“Why did he?”
“I don't know.”
“You never asked?”
“I thought he was helping me.”
“With what?”
“My business.”
I frowned.
“What business?”
“Construction.”
I knew Daniel had started a small construction company before we married.
“What did Robert want?”
“I don't know.”
“Daniel.”
“I swear.”
He sounded genuinely frightened.
“What happened after he introduced you to my grandfather?”
“Your grandfather liked me.”
“Did he?”
“At first.”
“Then?”
“Then he started asking questions.”
“About what?”
Daniel hesitated.
“About my finances.”
I closed my eyes.
“What did he discover?”
“That I had debt.”
“How much?”
“Not much then.”
“So the debt came later.”
“Yes.”
“Because of Richard?”
“Yes.”
I wrote that down.
“Did Robert know Richard?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Very well.”
“Did Robert ever tell you why he was helping you?”
Daniel was silent.
“Daniel?”
“He said your grandfather was difficult.”
“What else?”
“He said the company needed younger people around it.”
That sounded harmless.
But I knew better now.
“Did he ever talk about me?”
Daniel didn't answer.
My chest tightened.
“Did he mention me before we met?”
“Yes.”
The room seemed to go still.
“What did he say?”
“That you were your grandfather's only heir.”
I closed my eyes.
“How long before we met?”
“Several months.”
I couldn't speak.
Daniel continued.
“I didn't know what he expected me to do.”
“But you learned.”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I loved you.”
I wanted to believe him.
That was the cruel part.
But love did not erase what he had done.
“Daniel, did Robert tell you to marry me?”
“No.”
“Did Richard?”
“No.”
“Did anyone?”
He hesitated.
“No one said it directly.”
“Directly?”
“He told me your grandfather was protective. He said if I became part of the family, doors would open.”
I felt sick.
“Who said that?”
“Robert.”
The answer confirmed what I had feared.
I ended the call.
Marcus watched me.
“He admitted it?”
“He admitted enough.”
We sent the recording to the attorneys.
Then we searched Robert's professional records.
There were unexplained payments.
Small amounts.
Repeated over years.
Some came from Richard.
Some came from companies connected to Thomas Reed.
One payment came from Tiffany's account.
The pattern was undeniable.
Robert had been paid by people who benefited from information he controlled.
But there was still no direct proof that he had arranged my marriage.
Then the investigators found something.
A deleted calendar entry.
It had been recovered from an old server.
The date was six weeks before Daniel and I met.
The title read:
E.H. introduction.
Location: Hawthorne Holdings.
Attendees: Robert Hale, Daniel Mercer.
I stared at it.
“What does E.H. mean?”
Marcus didn't answer.
We didn't need him to.
My initials.
Emily Hawthorne.
The meeting had been about me.
The next recovered file was an email.
Robert had written to Daniel.
Emily will be present at the family event Saturday. Keep conversation natural. Do not discuss business.
My hands went cold.
“What family event?”
Marcus searched.
It was a charity dinner.
The night Daniel and I first met.
I remembered it.
I had been standing near the terrace, complaining to my sister that I wanted to leave.
Daniel had approached me.
He had made me laugh.
I had thought it was chance.
It hadn't been.
I sat down.
For years, I had remembered that evening as the beginning of my adult life.
Now it felt like the beginning of a trap.
Marcus placed another document in front of me.
A message from Robert to Richard.
She trusts easily. Daniel has good instincts.
I looked away.
That sentence hurt more than I expected.
Not because I had trusted.
Because someone had studied my trust as a weakness.
My sister arrived shortly afterward.
She took one look at my face.
“What happened?”
I handed her the document.
She read it.
Then she sat beside me.
“Oh, Emily.”
“I feel stupid.”
“You aren't stupid.”
“I didn't see it.”
“Because you weren't looking for a conspiracy inside your marriage.”
I stared at the floor.
She squeezed my hand.
“That's not stupidity.”
I nodded.
But the humiliation remained.
My children knew Daniel as their father.
Whatever had happened before their birth, he had still been the man who carried them to bed.
I couldn't turn that history into something simple.
Later that afternoon, Daniel sent another message.
I will testify against Robert.
I showed Marcus.
He frowned.
“Why now?”
“Fear.”
“Maybe.”
“Or guilt.”
“Maybe.”
I looked at the message.
“What if he is telling the truth?”
“Then his testimony will help.”
“And what if he's trying to save himself?”
“Then we verify everything.”
That was the only answer that mattered.
Verify.
We arranged another meeting.
Daniel brought documents.
This time, he brought a notebook.
He placed it on the table.
“I kept this because I didn't trust Richard.”
I opened it.
Names.
Payments.
Meetings.
Dates.
And Robert's name.
There were notes beside several entries.
Information.
Introduction.
Succession.
Loans.
My heart pounded.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“Because I wanted the money.”
At least he was honest.
“You knew what they were doing.”
“I knew enough.”
“You helped them.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you helping me now?”
He looked at the floor.
“Because Richard threatened my children.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He said if I testified, he would make sure I never saw them again.”
“That isn't something he can legally do.”
“I know.”
“But you believed him.”
“Yes.”
I closed the notebook.
“Did Robert threaten you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you more afraid of Richard?”
“Because Robert works through people.”
Daniel's voice dropped.
“Richard doesn't.”
He looked at me.
“Richard handles problems himself.”
The room went silent.
I remembered the anonymous call.
The warning.
The private airfield.
The missing records.
Suddenly, I understood the urgency.
Richard wasn't simply trying to protect money.
He was trying to protect himself.
And if Robert had betrayed him, Richard might be willing to eliminate anyone who could testify.
That evening, the police contacted Marcus.
Richard had left the private airfield.
He had not boarded the flight.
Instead, he had disappeared into the city.
The investigators found his vehicle abandoned near the waterfront.
Inside was a briefcase.
Empty.
Except for one photograph.
It showed my grandfather.
Standing outside the hospital.
Beside him was Robert.
And behind them was Richard.
On the back, in Richard's handwriting, were six words.
He knew before he died.
I stared at the photograph.
“He knew.”
Marcus nodded.
“Apparently.”
“What did he know?”
“We're still trying to determine that.”
I looked at the photograph again.
Then I noticed something in the corner.
A hospital wristband.
My grandfather's.
The photograph had been taken the day before he died.
Robert had been there.
Richard had been there.
And my grandfather had apparently known enough to be afraid.
I turned the photograph over.
There was another line beneath the first.
Ask Emily about the last meeting.
My blood ran cold.
“What last meeting?”
Marcus looked at me.
“I don't know.”
Then my phone buzzed.
An unknown number.
One message.
Your grandfather left one final recording.
Come alone if you want to hear it.
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: The Recording My Grandfather Left Before His Death Answered One Question and Opened Another That Could Destroy Everyone Involved
The Divorce Papers Were Only the First Thing He Took From Me That Afternoon, and the Last Thing He Expected Me to Question
Part 10 of 20
