Chapter 10 - WHAT GRAHAM KNEW
Graham survived.
Barely.
Adrian was arrested.
Kidnapping.
Forgery.
Fraud.
Unlawful transfer of assets.
Weapons charges.
The list kept growing.
Rosa spent one night in the hospital.
I sat beside her.
“You should’ve told me.”
“I was scared.”
“Of Adrian?”
She shook her head.
“Of losing you.”
I frowned.
“My mother asked me to watch over you.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
Rosa looked toward the window.
“She knew your husband was asking questions about old documents.”
My chest tightened.
“She knew?”
“She didn’t know how much. Only that something felt wrong.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“You were taking care of her. She didn’t want your final months together to become about lawyers.”
That sounded exactly like my mother.
Stubborn even while dying.
Rosa reached for my hand.
“She told me one more thing.”
“What?”
“Never trust Richard Pike.”
Graham’s father.
“But Richard is dead.”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Rosa swallowed.
“He came to see your mother two weeks before she died.”
I leaned closer.
“What did he say?”
“I only heard part.”
“Tell me.”
“He said, ‘Your daughter married into the wrong family.’”
I felt cold.
“And your mother answered, ‘No. The wrong family married into mine.’”
That made me smile despite everything.
Of course she said that.
Naomi arrived later.
She had information from Graham’s hospital interview.
He had started talking.
Not because he grew a conscience.
Because he wanted a deal.
The story went back decades.
Adrian’s grandfather knew my grandmother’s shares were valid.
So did his father.
So did Adrian.
The family tried repeatedly to erase them.
Fake buyout documents.
False accounting.
Shell companies.
Graham’s father helped hide it.
Adrian inherited the problem.
Then he married me.
Naomi looked at me carefully.
“We don’t yet know whether the marriage was part of a plan.”
I stared at the floor.
“I do.”
“How?”
“Because he proposed three weeks after my mother showed him her estate binder.”
Silence.
I remembered that night.
Wine.
Candles.
Adrian nervous on one knee.
I had thought he was afraid I might say no.
Maybe he was afraid I’d learn why he needed yes.
Naomi continued.
“There’s something else.”
“Of course there is.”
“Graham says Adrian didn’t plan the Fashion Week incident.”
I laughed.
“What do you mean?”
“The seat was Vanessa’s idea.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
“But Adrian agreed because he wanted you angry enough to leave.”
“Leave the show?”
“No.”
She slid a document across the table.
“Leave the country.”
It was a reservation.
Two first-class tickets.
Paris.
For me and my sister.
Purchased three days before Fashion Week.
I frowned.
“My sister never mentioned this.”
“Because she didn’t buy it.”
“Adrian did?”
Naomi nodded.
“He planned to tell you there was a family emergency in Paris.”
“Why?”
“Because the day after Fashion Week, he intended to file an emergency petition.”
“For what?”
She turned the page.
I read the heading.
PETITION FOR TEMPORARY CONTROL OF MARITAL AND BUSINESS ASSETS.
Below it, Adrian’s attorney had written:
Spouse exhibiting unstable behavior and possible cognitive impairment.
May you like
I looked up.
“He was going to claim I was mentally incompetent?”
