Chapter 5 - GRANDPA’S BETRAYAL
I couldn’t move.
Robert had loved Emily more than anyone except me.
He took her fishing.
Built her a treehouse.
Called every Sunday.
After Sarah died, he had been the one person who understood what losing her did to me.
Now he was driving away with the woman who had helped Rebecca manipulate Emily’s trust.
“Why is Grandpa with her?” Emily asked.
I had no answer.
Police arrived six minutes later.
Rebecca had already gone back inside the chapel.
Apparently, she wanted to “calm the guests.”
I gave the officers the note.
The transfer alerts.
Mark gave them copies of the documents.
Melissa gave a statement.
Then an officer asked me the question I had been dreading.
“Do you have reason to believe your daughter is in immediate danger?”
“Yes.”
Emily was sitting ten feet away.
She heard me.
Her face crumpled.
I walked over.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
I sat beside her.
“No, you don’t have to be okay.”
She leaned into me.
“I thought you were going to pick Rebecca.”
My heart broke in a place I didn’t know was still vulnerable.
“Never.”
“But she said grown-ups choose wives.”
“I choose you.”
Her eyes filled.
“Even when I’m annoying?”
I almost laughed.
“Especially then.”
My phone rang.
Robert.
I stared at the screen.
Then answered.
“Where are you?”
“Daniel, don’t do anything stupid.”
“You’re with Diane.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because this is bigger than Rebecca.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Start talking.”
Robert sighed.
“Sarah’s trust is in trouble.”
“What does that mean?”
“Some of the investments failed.”
“How much?”
Silence.
“How much, Robert?”
“Almost two million.”
My vision blurred.
Emily’s trust had been worth around four million.
“You lost half?”
“I can recover it.”
“By stealing from the rest?”
“No.”
“Then why is Rebecca transferring money?”
“Because she has a buyer.”
“A buyer for what?”
Robert paused.
“The warehouse properties.”
Three commercial properties Sarah inherited from her grandfather.
Those properties were held inside Emily’s trust.
Rebecca had pushed me for months to sell them.
I had refused.
They were the strongest-performing assets in the trust.
“You can’t sell them.”
“Not without authority.”
My stomach turned.
“The marriage gives her authority.”
“Yes.”
There it was.
The entire wedding.
Not love.
Not family.
Authority.
Rebecca needed my signature.
My status.
My marriage.
Then Emily had to disappear somewhere far enough away that she couldn’t interfere.
“You helped her.”
Robert’s voice broke.
“I was trying to protect what was left.”
“You were sending your granddaughter away.”
“No.”
“You knew about Vermont.”
Silence.
That silence answered me.
I looked at Emily.
She was picking at a loose thread in her dress.
“Why?”
Robert exhaled.
“Rebecca said you would never sell while Emily was living with you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“She needed residential placement to activate a trustee clause.”
Mark looked sharply at me.
I put the phone on speaker.
“What clause?” he asked.
Robert cursed.
Mark stepped closer.
“What clause, Robert?”
“If Emily was deemed unable to reside with her legal guardian for more than ninety days, management authority could transfer.”
“To who?”
“An appointed family trustee.”
My stomach dropped.
Rebecca had convinced Robert to become that trustee.
Then she would marry me.
Then together they could liquidate the properties.
“You sold my daughter,” I whispered.
“No!”
“That’s exactly what you did.”
Robert’s voice cracked.
“I was going to bring her home.”
“When?”
“After the sale.”
I closed my eyes.
There are betrayals you rage against.
And there are betrayals that simply empty you.
This was the second kind.
Robert suddenly whispered:
“Daniel, listen carefully.”
“What?”
“Rebecca doesn’t know I called you.”
I looked up.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because she lied to me too.”
“About what?”
“The school.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about it?”
“It isn’t a school.”
I stopped breathing.
Robert continued.
“It’s a private behavioral facility.”
Mark swore.
“What kind?”
Robert’s voice dropped.
“Locked residential treatment.”
Emily was staring at me.
I took the phone off speaker.
Too late.
She had heard.
“Daddy…”
I hugged her.
Robert whispered through the phone:
“And Daniel?”
“What?”
“Rebecca has already told them Emily is violent.”
I looked toward the chapel doors.
Rebecca stood there watching us.
Then she lifted her phone.
And smiled.
May you like
A message appeared on mine.
YOU SHOULD HAVE MARRIED ME. NOW I’LL PROVE YOU’RE UNFIT TOO.
