Chapter 5 - THE SECOND BRIDE
I drove away without looking in the rearview mirror.
My hands didn’t begin shaking until the Wexler gates disappeared behind me.
I pulled into the parking lot of a small pharmacy three miles away.
Then I sat inside my car and breathed.
Fourteen hours of marriage.
That was all it had taken.
Fourteen hours to turn my wedding photographs into evidence from another life.
Maya stayed on the phone.
“Where are you going?”
“My parents’ house.”
“No.”
Her answer surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because Derek knows that’s where you’ll go.”
I looked around the parking lot.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Come to my office.”
“Maya.”
“Chloe, somebody searched your luggage, attempted to attach your inheritance to a trust, and forged your signature.”
She paused.
“I don’t want you alone.”
I drove downtown.
Maya’s office occupied the twenty-third floor of a glass tower.
By the time I arrived, she had printed everything.
The loan guarantee.
The postnuptial agreement.
Electronic audit logs.
IP addresses.
Timestamp records.
Then she placed one final sheet in front of me.
“Recognize this name?”
Lauren Marie Hayes.
My skin prickled.
“What is it?”
“A civil complaint drafted six years ago.”
“Against Derek?”
“Against Derek and Brenda.”
The lawsuit had never been filed.
Lauren had accused them of financial coercion, unlawful confinement, identity misuse, and theft.
My mouth became dry.
“Why wasn’t it filed?”
“She withdrew it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya leaned back.
“But I found her.”
I stared at her.
“Where?”
“Virginia.”
“Can we contact her?”
“I already did.”
I almost smiled.
Of course she had.
“What did she say?”
Maya hesitated.
“She asked whether Brenda made you kneel yet.”
A chill passed through me.
Twenty minutes later, Lauren appeared on the conference-room screen.
She was thirty-five now.
Dark hair.
Calm eyes.
A wedding ring on her finger that clearly belonged to someone other than Derek.
She stared at me for several seconds.
Then she said something I will never forget.
“You got out faster than I did.”
My throat tightened.
“How long did you stay?”
“Eleven months.”
I couldn’t imagine eleven more hours.
Lauren continued.
“The humiliation starts privately.”
“Then it becomes public.”
“Then they take control of your money.”
“Then they convince you nobody will believe you.”
I thought of the towel.
The laughter.
The locked bedroom.
“Why didn’t you file the lawsuit?”
Lauren looked away.
“Because Brenda found my younger brother.”
“What does that mean?”
“She discovered he had a gambling problem.”
“She bought his debt.”
“Then she told me she would destroy him financially unless I disappeared quietly.”
I leaned closer.
“Did Derek know?”
Lauren laughed without humor.
“Derek planned it.”
The room went silent.
Then Lauren looked directly into the camera.
“Chloe, if they forged your signature already, they’re desperate.”
“How desperate?”
She hesitated.
“Desperate enough that you need to find out what happened to the family company.”
I looked at Maya.
She was already typing.
Five minutes later, her expression changed.
“What?”
She turned the laptop toward me.
Wexler Hospitality had missed three debt payments.
Payroll was due Friday.
The company had forty-eight hours before default.
And the lender controlling their future was Northstar Capital.
My company.
May you like
Derek hadn’t married me because he loved my family.
He had married the woman who unknowingly held the switch keeping his entire empire alive.
