Chapter 5 - THE REAL REASON HE FOUND ME
Gregory was awake when I returned to the hospital.
I stood inside his room holding the Parker Electric file.
He looked at my face.
Then the folder.
And he knew.
“You found the ledger.”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes.
“Eden.”
“Did you know who my father was when you started dating me?”
“Not at first.”
“How long before you told me you loved me?”
His silence hurt.
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Three weeks?”
“I had Naomi run your background after our second dinner.”
“And Parker Electric appeared.”
“Yes.”
“You knew your company had destroyed a man my father worked beside.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was investigating.”
“That seems to be your answer for everything.”
He tried to sit up.
I stepped back.
“Don’t.”
Not because I cared whether he strained himself.
Because I did not want him reaching for me.
He understood.
“Why did you sign the payment release?”
His expression became heavy.
“I was twenty-two.”
I stared.
“You were younger than I am.”
“Yes.”
“My father was running international operations then. I was being trained.”
“So you signed whatever he gave you?”
“At the time, yes.”
“Without checking?”
“I trusted him.”
“That signature helped close Parker Electric.”
“I know.”
“Eddie Collins died thinking your company stole from him.”
“I know.”
My voice broke.
“My father was threatened.”
Gregory’s face changed.
“I did not know that until this year.”
“This year?”
“When I discovered the old contractor files.”
I looked at him.
“And then you met me.”
“No. I met you first.”
He spoke slowly.
“I saw you at the auction because you were arguing with a florist.”
Despite myself, I remembered.
The florist had delivered arrangements with lilies despite the donor being severely allergic.
Gregory continued.
“I noticed you because everyone else was afraid to upset an expensive vendor and you were the only person asking whether the guest might die.”
“That doesn’t answer anything.”
“I met you first. Then I learned your name. Then I investigated because everyone near me gets investigated.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It is also true.”
He looked ashamed.
“When Parker Electric appeared, I nearly stopped seeing you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because by then I wanted to see you again.”
“That is selfish.”
“Yes.”
I hated how quickly he admitted fault.
It left me nowhere comfortable to put my anger.
“I should have told you,” he said.
“Yes.”
“I should have told your father.”
“Yes.”
“I should have told you before I proposed.”
“Yes.”
He looked at me steadily.
“But I did not choose you because of Parker Electric.”
“How can I believe that?”
“You may not.”
The answer hurt more than persuasion would have.
Gregory reached toward the bedside drawer.
“Naomi brought this.”
He handed me a sealed envelope.
My name was written across the front.
“What is it?”
“A letter I wrote two months before our engagement.”
I opened it.
It was not romantic.
It was instructions to Naomi.
If Gregory died before telling me about Parker Electric, Naomi was to give my father the original Hawthorne project records, personally reimburse the unpaid amount with forty years of compounded interest, and fund a legal review for every small contractor identified in the ledger.
The total reserve:
$38 million.
I looked up.
“You were going to do this anyway?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I wanted enough evidence to prosecute the people still participating.”
“Charles?”
“Possibly.”
“Celeste?”
“Possibly.”
“You keep saying possibly.”
“Because suspicion is not proof.”
An auditor would have appreciated that.
A furious bride did not.
I sat.
“What happened twenty years ago?”
Gregory took a breath.
“My father created a payment diversion system. Hawthorne Meridian paid legitimate invoices. Before funds reached smaller subcontractors, certain project managers redirected portions into shell companies.”
“And recorded the subcontractors as paid.”
“Yes.”
“Why target small businesses?”
“Because they had less legal power.”
My stomach twisted.
“My father’s friend.”
“Yes.”
“Was Walter the one who threatened my father?”
“I don’t know.”
“You believe he could have.”
“Yes.”
I stared at Gregory.
“Why are Charles and Celeste continuing it?”
“I believe Charles inherited the network. Celeste manages several charitable and real-estate entities that may receive the money.”
“How much?”
“Over thirty years?”
He looked out the window.
“Possibly half a billion dollars.”
I almost stopped breathing.
Then his heart monitor quickened.
A nurse entered.
I stood.
“We’re finished.”
Gregory looked at me.
“With the conversation?”
I knew what he meant.
“With the marriage?”
I could not answer.
That was the truth.
I still loved him.
That made me angrier.
“You should rest.”
I walked out.
Naomi was waiting.
“You believe him?” I asked.
“About Parker Electric?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Gregory has spent three years destroying his own family reputation trying to prove it.”
She handed me a flash drive.
“What’s this?”
“Board materials.”
“Hawthorne Meridian has an emergency board meeting tomorrow.”
“About what?”
“Removing Gregory permanently.”
My head snapped up.
“They can do that?”
“If they prove incapacity and obtain the family trust vote.”
“But I control that vote.”
“For now.”
“What do they need to remove me?”
Naomi’s expression darkened.
“Proof your marriage was fraudulent.”
I almost laughed.
“Based on what?”
“Age difference. Financial imbalance. Gregory’s medical condition.”
“That’s not fraud.”
“No.”
“What else?”
“They have a witness.”
“Who?”
“Someone claiming Gregory paid your family before the engagement.”
My blood turned cold.
“My family never received money.”
Naomi opened a banking report.
Three months before Gregory proposed, $250,000 had been deposited into an account under my father’s name.
Two days later, it was moved offshore.
“I’ve never seen that account.”
“Neither has your father.”
“Identity theft.”
“Probably.”
“Who opened it?”
“We’re tracing it.”
I stared at the paperwork.
Someone was building a case that Gregory had purchased me.
And tomorrow they were going to present it to the board.
My phone buzzed.
Charles.
One message.
COME TO THE HAWTHORNE ESTATE ALONE TONIGHT.
Then another.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY GREGORY REALLY RUSHED THE WEDDING, ASK HIM WHAT HAPPENS TO THE TRUST WHEN HE TURNS SIXTY-TWO.
Gregory’s birthday was in eleven days.
I turned toward his hospital room.
There was still another secret.
May you like
And I was getting tired of learning my marriage one hidden clause at a time.
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