Chapter 10 - The Trap
I stayed at our lake house thirty miles away.
Officially, Julian and I were not speaking.
Chloe seemed delighted by the story.
She returned to the mansion the next afternoon.
Within two hours, she began giving staff orders again.
This time, nobody argued.
Not because they feared her.
Because Julian had asked them to play along.
Every room recorded her.
Every hallway listened.
Julian called me from his car that evening.
“She believes you left because we fought.”
“Good.”
“She thinks I’m angry at you.”
“Are you?”
A pause.
“At myself.”
I closed my eyes.
“Then fix what you can.”
“I’m trying.”
The cameras captured Chloe entering my study at 1:14 a.m.
She searched three drawers.
Opened my safe.
Photographed documents.
Then called someone.
Daniel amplified the audio.
Chloe’s voice was clear.
“Julian bought it.”
A man answered.
“Did he sign the final amendment?”
“Not yet.”
“Then get it done before the ceremony.”
“What if Evelyn talks?”
“She already confessed the 2009 transfer.”
“She thinks honesty protects her.”
The man laughed.
I recognized that laugh.
My stomach dropped.
Julian leaned toward the speaker.
“Who is that?”
I knew before the camera captured Chloe saying his name.
“Richard, stop worrying.”
Julian froze.
Richard Vance.
My late husband’s younger brother.
Julian’s uncle.
The man who had disappeared from our lives after losing a fight over control of the company fifteen years earlier.
Julian whispered, “Uncle Richard?”
I felt old anger rise inside me.
Richard had blamed me for everything.
He believed I had manipulated my husband.
He believed the company should have been his.
After my husband died, Richard challenged the trust and lost.
Then he vanished.
Apparently he had not forgotten.
On the recording, Richard said, “Once you’re married, Julian receives the voting shares.”
Chloe smiled.
“And once he signs the marital amendment, I have leverage over those shares.”
Richard answered.
“Exactly.”
Julian stopped the video.
His voice was barely audible.
“She wasn’t marrying me for money.”
“No.”
I stared at Richard’s name on the screen.
“She was marrying you for control.”
Then Chloe said one final sentence from the recording.
“And after Julian serves his purpose, we won’t need him anymore.”
My son’s face became completely still.
The heartbreak was gone.
Something colder had replaced it.
May you like
“Keep recording.”
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