CHAPTER 4 — The Woman Who Planned My Marriage
CHAPTER 4 — The Woman Who Planned My Marriage
Nathaniel arranged another meeting that same evening.
Arthur handed over every document he had hidden for nearly three years.
Emails.
Visitor logs.
Security footage.
Phone records.
Everything.
One visitor's name appeared again and again.
Margaret Ellis.
I frowned.
"I don't know anyone named Margaret Ellis."
Arthur nodded.
"You do."
He slid one final photograph across the table.
It showed a woman leaving his office.
Elegant.
Silver hair.
Designer coat.
Expensive handbag.
I stared at the image.
Then every breath left my lungs.
It wasn't Margaret Ellis.
It was my mother's older sister.
My Aunt Vivian.
The woman who had practically helped raise me after my father built his company.
The woman who baked my birthday cakes.
Who attended every graduation.
Who cried at my wedding.
She had been using a different legal name.
Nathaniel quietly spoke.
"Vivian Ellis."
"Margaret is her first name."
"Ellis is the surname from her first marriage."
"Most people simply knew her as Vivian."
I couldn't speak.
The evidence became impossible to ignore.
Two years before Graham met me, Vivian had quietly contacted Arthur requesting copies of trust procedures.
Six months later, Graham "accidentally" met me at a charity fundraiser.
Nathaniel investigated further.
There had been no accident.
Vivian served on the fundraiser's planning committee.
She had personally approved the guest list.
Including Graham's invitation.
My marriage...
...had been arranged.
Not by strangers.
By family.
More records surfaced.
Text messages between Vivian and Patricia.
Vivian: "He's exactly the kind of man Claire would trust."
Patricia: "Just don't rush her."
Vivian: "Once they're married, everything becomes easier."
Nathaniel looked at me carefully.
"They recruited him."
Suddenly every memory changed.
The dinner where Vivian insisted Graham and I sit together.
The vacations.
The family holidays.
The compliments.
The encouragement.
Every "coincidence" had been engineered.
Not because they wanted me to find love.
Because they wanted someone who understood divorce law better than I did.
Nathaniel smiled for the first time in weeks.
"They've made one mistake."
"Only one?"
"They assumed you would react emotionally."
I looked at him.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Nothing."
"They're preparing for trial."
"So are we."
He opened his briefcase.
Inside sat a thick manila envelope.
Blank on the outside.
No labels.
No markings.
Nathaniel rested one hand on it.
"When the time is right..."
"...this envelope will end everything."
I glanced at it.
"What is it?"
He smiled.
"The reason Graham is going to lose far more than this divorce."
Just then, Nathaniel's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed instantly.
"What?"
He stood up.
"When?"
A long silence followed.
Finally he looked at me.
"Claire..."
"Graham's legal license has just come under emergency review."
"Someone anonymously sent the State Bar evidence this morning."
"I didn't send it."
Nathaniel slowly smiled.
"Neither did I."
A chill ran through me.
Someone else had entered the game.
Someone who knew everything.
May you like
And whoever that person was...
...they wanted Graham destroyed just as badly as I did.
