Chapter 8 - BEFORE HE MARRIED ME
Daniel Price met us three days later in a conference room at Leah’s office.
I had been discharged into a secure apartment my father’s company used for visiting staff. Leaving the hospital didn’t mean I was well. It meant I could continue recovering somewhere else.
I walked slowly.
Daniel stood when I entered.
Then he seemed to regret it, as though any sudden movement might frighten me.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Did you know?”
The question escaped before I sat down.
He swallowed.
“About the money. Not what he was doing to you.”
Leah closed the door.
“Start at the beginning.”
Daniel put a folder on the table.
“Adrian knew your father’s identity before the wedding.”
My father’s expression hardened.
I stared at Daniel.
“No.”
“He paid for background research when you started dating.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“I saw the invoice.”
The room went quiet.
I thought about every dinner where Adrian had mocked my retired accountant father.
He hadn’t been mistaken.
He had been performing.
“Why pretend he didn’t know?”
Daniel looked miserable.
“Because he thought you were hiding access to family money. He believed if he kept you insecure, eventually you’d offer it.”
I could hear Adrian’s voice.
If you believed in me, you’d help.
A real wife stands behind her husband.
Why do you keep us separate from your family?
My father pushed his chair back.
Leah lifted a hand.
“Thomas.”
He stopped.
Daniel continued.
“When Mercer Holdings declined his proposal, he started using names that suggested a connection anyway.”
“Mercer Bridge,” I said.
He nodded.
“Investors assumed.”
“And he let them.”
“He encouraged it.”
I looked down at my wedding ring.
I had kept it on because swelling made removing it difficult.
Now it looked like evidence from someone else’s life.
“What about Vanessa?”
Daniel opened the folder.
“She wasn’t new.”
Inside was an old consulting agreement.
Her signature.
Adrian’s.
A date six months before our wedding.
I read it twice.
All those times she had called me jealous.
All those times he had said I was imagining things.
They had been working together before he ever called me his wife.
Daniel rubbed his palms against his trousers.
“There’s more. I copied the original account records, but the verification files stayed on an archive drive.”
“Where?” Leah asked.
“Adrian’s office.”
“Police can seek it.”
Daniel shook his head.
“He won’t keep it there now.”
My phone vibrated.
A notification from the shared property account I had forgotten existed.
May you like
OFFICE STORAGE PICKUP CONFIRMED.
Scheduled for 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.
