Chapter 13 - THE MARRIAGE THEY PLANNED
The email changed the history of my life.
I remembered my first dinner with Margaret.
She had smiled politely.
Asked where I went to school.
Asked about my parents.
Asked whether my father worked in business.
At the time, I thought she was making conversation.
Now I knew she had been confirming my identity.
Andrew claimed he knew nothing.
He came to my attorney’s office voluntarily.
No lawyers.
No security.
He looked exhausted.
“You have to believe me.”
“I don’t have to do anything anymore.”
“My mother never told me.”
“Never told you what?”
“About your father.”
I studied him.
“Then why did she encourage you to marry me?”
Andrew stared at the table.
“I thought she liked you.”
I laughed once.
“Margaret?”
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds ridiculous.”
He leaned forward.
“I fell in love with you.”
For the first time in days, I felt anger hotter than pain.
“Do not use that sentence to excuse what happened later.”
“I’m not.”
“You planned to destroy my reputation.”
“I know.”
“You helped frame me.”
“I know.”
“You hit me.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“And now you want me to believe the beginning was real?”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
Part of me hated that I believed he might be telling the truth.
Not because it mattered.
But because it made everything sadder.
Andrew may have loved me once.
Then envy infected the love.
Resentment replaced gratitude.
Brenda fed the resentment.
Margaret weaponized it.
And Andrew chose cruelty.
That choice belonged to him.
No one else.
He placed an envelope on the table.
“What is this?”
“Something my mother kept.”
Inside were letters between Margaret and her brother.
The disgraced executive my father had fired decades earlier.
One sentence appeared repeatedly.
The Escalantes owe us.
Then another letter mentioned me.
If Andrew marries the girl, we finally get close enough to take back what belongs to us.
I looked up.
“Where did you find these?”
“In my mother’s safe.”
“Why give them to me?”
Andrew swallowed.
“Because I finally understand that she used both of us.”
I pushed the papers back.
“No.”
He looked confused.
“She used you.”
I pointed toward myself.
“You abused me.”
He flinched.
The distinction mattered.
Margaret may have shaped him.
Brenda may have manipulated him.
But Andrew had raised his own hand.
Twice.
Before leaving, he stopped at the door.
“There’s another letter.”
I looked up.
“What does it say?”
His face became pale.
“My mother wasn’t planning to stop with your divorce.”
“What was she planning?”
May you like
Andrew answered quietly.
“To take control of Escalante Global.”
