Chapter 25
I turned toward my attorney.
Claire Benton went completely still.
Nobody spoke.
The security image was grainy.
But the face looked like her.
Same dark hair.
Same height.
Same posture.
My stomach dropped.
“Claire?”
She stared at the screen.
“That isn’t me.”
Daniel laughed sharply.
“It looks exactly like you.”
“I said it isn’t me.”
Bell moved between them.
“Ms. Benton, we need to verify.”
“Of course.”
She handed over her phone voluntarily.
Then her purse.
Then gave permission to check her location records.
No hesitation.
That mattered.
Still, my trust was too damaged to give anyone the benefit of the doubt for free.
“Where were you four months ago on that date?”
Claire checked.
“At a legal conference in Chicago.”
“Proof?”
“Flights. Hotel. Panels. About three hundred witnesses.”
Bell verified within an hour.
She was telling the truth.
So who was the woman?
Facial analysis suggested a close relative.
Claire’s expression changed when Bell said that.
“My sister.”
I stared.
“You have a sister?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve never mentioned her.”
“Because we haven’t spoken in eight years.”
“What’s her name?”
“Natalie Benton.”
Bell searched.
Natalie had worked for Carter Development.
Not recently.
Twenty years earlier.
Assistant to Charles Mercer.
Of course.
I laughed.
The room stared at me.
“What?”
I shook my head.
“Nothing. Apparently every human being in America worked for my family.”
Claire looked sick.
“I didn’t know she had contact with Mercer.”
“Why did you stop speaking?”
Claire hesitated.
“She stole from our parents.”
“How much?”
“About sixty thousand.”
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
Bell found an address.
Empty.
Her employer said she had resigned two weeks earlier.
Missing.
Again.
But this time we had a direct connection to the marriage manipulation.
Natalie had messaged Mercer.
The boy is close to her.
That meant she knew Ryan was targeting me.
Maybe she helped arrange it.
Maybe Diane wasn’t the mastermind.
Or not the only one.
Claire looked devastated.
“I introduced you to Ryan’s company.”
My skin prickled.
“What?”
“At the charity auction.”
I remembered.
Claire had invited me.
She had represented the nonprofit.
Ryan’s firm was a sponsor.
“You said the seating mix-up was random.”
“It was.”
“Was Natalie involved?”
“I don’t know.”
Bell asked, “Did your sister know Ms. Carter was your client?”
“Yes.”
My stomach sank.
Claire looked at me.
“I swear I never connected this.”
I believed her more than I wanted to.
But belief was expensive now.
We traced Natalie’s financial records.
Two large payments from Gray Finch Consulting.
Martin’s company.
Martin was questioned.
His answer shocked us.
“Natalie worked for me.”
Bell asked, “Doing what?”
“Information.”
“On Emily?”
“Sometimes.”
My anger exploded.
“You had someone watching me too?”
Martin looked ashamed.
“Victor ordered protection.”
“Grandfather was dead!”
“Henry continued some of the arrangement.”
I froze.
“Dad paid you to monitor me?”
“For security.”
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
Claire whispered, “Jesus.”
Martin continued.
“Natalie handled digital research. Schedules. Public records. Risk analysis.”
“Then she started working for Mercer?”
“I didn’t know.”
“How long?”
“Probably years.”
“Did she arrange Ryan meeting me?”
“I don’t know.”
Ryan, back in the room now, spoke.
“I talked to her.”
Everyone turned.
“When?”
“Before Emily and I met.”
My pulse hammered.
“What?”
Ryan looked at me.
“My mother introduced us.”
“Why?”
“She said Natalie knew the Carter family.”
Claire sat down.
Ryan continued.
“Natalie told me which events you attended. What causes you supported. What kind of men you dated.”
I felt violated all over again.
“She coached you.”
“Yes.”
My voice went cold.
“What else?”
“She told me not to appear too interested in your money.”
Daniel swore.
Ryan looked ashamed.
“She said you hated people who acted impressed.”
True.
Because I had grown up surrounded by them.
Natalie had turned my boundaries into a manipulation manual.
“Did she tell you about Thomas?”
“No.”
“The trust?”
“Approximate value.”
“Prenup?”
“She thought it could be challenged.”
Claire snapped, “It couldn’t.”
Ryan nodded.
“I know.”
Bell asked, “Who paid Natalie?”
Ryan shook his head.
“I thought my mother.”
Diane, through counsel, denied paying her.
Financial records supported that.
The payments came from a consulting account controlled by Mercer.
So Mercer had been behind the relationship.
Diane had participated.
Ryan had participated.
Natalie had facilitated.
All roads led to leverage through marriage.
I was the asset.
Not the person.
Then Bell’s team recovered another deleted message.
Natalie to Mercer, three months earlier:
RYAN IS FALLING FOR HER. PROBLEM?
Mercer:
BETTER. LOVE MAKES PEOPLE STUPID.
Another:
DIANE WANTS DNA FIRST.
Mercer:
NO. IF THEY TEST, MARRIAGE MAY STOP.
My stomach twisted.
Mercer had known Ryan wasn’t Thomas’s son.
He had known there was no biological barrier.
Diane had not.
Yet Mercer prevented testing because he wanted the marriage.
Then the final message.
Natalie:
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE WEDDING?
Mercer:
HENRY’S DAUGHTER SIGNS. THEN WE OWN THE DOOR.
I stared at it.
“Signs what?”
Nobody knew.
Not yet.
Then Claire slowly looked at the notebook recovered from Diane’s storage.
MEDICAL AUTHORIZATION.
She whispered, “Maybe not medical.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“Maybe Diane misunderstood.”
She opened the prenup file on her tablet.
Then my estate documents.
Her face changed.
“Emily.”
“What?”
“Your trust has a spousal emergency governance clause.”
My blood turned cold.
“What does it do?”
“If you’re declared incapacitated, your spouse can nominate an interim trustee.”
Ryan stared at her.
Claire continued.
“Not control the money directly.”
I understood.
“But control the door.”
Exactly what Mercer wrote.
May you like
The marriage had never been about divorce.
It was about what happened if I couldn’t make decisions.
