Chapter 4 - The Banker’s Panic
Three days after my surgery, Travis asked to see me.
Victoria wanted to refuse.
My attorney wanted to refuse.
Even the detective assigned to my case, Detective Hannah Reed, suggested that any conversation take place only with counsel present.
So we met in a private conference room at the hospital.
Travis arrived wearing a navy suit and the same polished expression he had worn at dinner.
But now I could see the fractures in it.
His tie was crooked.
His hands would not stop moving.
And when he saw the bruises still shadowing my face, he looked away.
“Emily,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
I did not respond.
Victoria sat beside me. Detective Reed stood by the door. My attorney, Samuel Price, had a legal pad open in front of him.
Travis swallowed.
“I didn’t know what was happening.”
“You were laughing,” I said carefully. My jaw still hurt with every word.
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“You told me my work was pointless.”
“I was showing off.”
“You watched my family attack me.”
“I thought they were—”
He stopped.
Because there was no sentence that could make it better.
“You thought they were what?” I asked.
His voice dropped.
“I thought it was some kind of sick family joke.”
“A wrench to the face?”
His cheeks flushed.
“No. I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds exactly like what it was.”
Travis reached into his briefcase and removed a folder.
“I brought information.”
Samuel leaned forward.
“What information?”
“About your father.”
My body went cold.
Travis placed several documents on the table.
“Your father has been in contact with people connected to Vale Capital. Not officially. But he has been trying to sell information about the Linwood family trust.”
Victoria went still.
“What information?” she asked.
“Your location. Your background. Your relationship with the family.”
I looked at the pages.
There were email exchanges between my father and a man named Gordon Vale, Travis’s uncle and the managing partner of Vale Capital.
The messages went back almost two years.
My father had been asking for money.
In exchange, he claimed he could “persuade” me to sign documents when the trust contacted me.
One line made my stomach turn.
Emily has always been easy to control. She’ll do whatever her mother tells her if we apply enough pressure.
My hands began shaking.
Travis watched me.
“I didn’t know about the messages until after dinner,” he said. “My uncle called me. He was furious. He said you were never supposed to be hurt.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That makes it better?”
“No,” Travis said. “Nothing makes it better.”
Victoria’s face was ice.
“Your firm tried to use an abused woman as an entry point into our family’s assets.”
Travis looked at her.
“My uncle did. Not me.”
“Did you report him?”
He hesitated.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
The word sat between us.
For the first time, I saw something ugly and ordinary beneath Travis’s expensive suit.
Cowardice.
He was not powerful.
He was just a man who had spent his life standing near powerful people and mistaking their influence for his own.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“I want to help.”
“Why?”
“Because if I testify, Vale Capital will destroy me.”
I stared at him.
“And?”
“And because I deserve it,” he said. “But Ethan—”
He stopped himself, shaking his head.
“My career isn’t the point. I know that.”
No, it wasn’t.
I looked at Detective Reed.
“Can he give a formal statement?”
“If he has evidence, yes,” she replied.
Travis nodded.
“I have emails, recordings, board documents. Gordon Vale has been coordinating with your parents for months. They planned to file for emergency guardianship over you after the assault.”
The room went silent.
“Guardianship?” I asked.
“Your mother had a doctor willing to state that you were emotionally unstable and incapable of managing financial decisions after trauma.”
Victoria’s hand tightened around mine.
“They were going to hurt me,” I whispered.
“They already did,” she said.
Travis looked at me, ashamed.
“There is more.”
I braced myself.
“Your sister knew.”
My breath stopped.
“Madison knew about the trust,” he continued. “Your parents promised her money if she helped push you into signing over some control. That’s why she introduced me to you that night. She wanted me to evaluate whether you knew anything.”
I remembered Travis staring.
Not flirting.
Assessing.
Studying.
Waiting for a clue.
Everything about that dinner had been planned.
The questions.
The insults.
The attack.
They wanted to break me before I learned the truth.
But they made one mistake.
They let the pendant fall into the light.
May you like
And now their entire plan was about to collapse.
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