Chapter 3 - The Woman Behind the CurtainDaniel arrived at Mercer Tower at 6:18 a.m.
Claire was in the back seat.
He didn't bring her inside.
That surprised me.
Maybe some part of him understood that appearances still mattered.
I was standing at the end of the boardroom table when he entered.
He looked exhausted.
His tie was gone.
His hair was disheveled.
He looked at me as if he expected tears.
He didn't get them.
His eyes moved around the room.
Eight board members.
Marcus.
The CFO.
Two attorneys.
And me.
"Hannah."
"Daniel."
His gaze landed on the folder in front of me.
"What is this?"
I pushed a document across the table.
"Your resignation."
He stared at it.
Then laughed.
"You're serious?"
"Very."
He looked around.
"No one can fire me."
Marcus spoke calmly.
"The board can."
Daniel pointed at him.
"You're my attorney."
"No."
Marcus folded his hands.
"I was your father-in-law's attorney."
Daniel looked at me.
"What did you do?"
I stood.
"I did nothing."
"You froze my accounts."
"No."
"The banks froze them."
"Correct."
"On whose authority?"
"Mine."
He stared at me.
"You?"
I nodded.
"Me."
Daniel's face hardened.
"How?"
I opened the first file.
"Because Brooks Development is controlled by Mercer Holdings."
He blinked.
"That's not possible."
"It is."
"The company has my name."
"Your name is on the building."
I slid another document toward him.
"The shares are mine."
His expression changed.
"You're lying."
Marcus pushed the certified records forward.
"Fourteen percent, Mr. Brooks."
Daniel grabbed them.
His eyes scanned the documents.
Then scanned again.
"No."
I watched him.
"You were never the owner."
He looked up.
"Then why did you let me believe I was?"
"Because my father arranged it."
"Your father hated me."
"Yes."
"Then why?"
I answered softly.
"Because he wanted to know what you would do when you thought the empire belonged to you."
Daniel stared at me.
I could see the pieces connecting.
Four years.
Every loan.
Every acquisition.
Every expansion.
Every luxury house.
Every car.
Every business trip.
Every time he said, "I built this."
I had always been there.
But now he understood.
He hadn't built it.
He had been operating it.
Under my trust.
With my money.
Using my father's infrastructure.
And I had never known because my father wanted me protected from the details.
Or so I thought.
Daniel's voice dropped.
"How much?"
"What?"
"How much do you control?"
I looked at Marcus.
He answered.
"Approximately nine hundred and fourteen million dollars in combined real estate and associated holdings."
Daniel went completely still.
Claire's name appeared on his phone.
He ignored it.
I noticed.
For the first time that morning, I saw fear in his eyes.
"Hannah."
"Yes?"
"Your father knew about Claire."
I didn't answer.
"He knew about us."
My stomach tightened.
"About you and Claire?"
"He knew everything."
"Then tell me."
Daniel sat down slowly.
"What?"
"Everything."
His hands shook.
"I loved her before I met you."
"I know."
"I thought she was gone."
"She wasn't."
"No."
He looked at the floor.
"She came back."
"When?"
"Two years ago."
I felt something inside me crack.
"Two years?"
"Yes."
"You've been seeing her for two years?"
"It's complicated."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"Nothing is complicated anymore."
He looked at me.
"I didn't plan to marry you."
The room became silent.
I swallowed.
"What?"
"I was trying to protect you."
I almost laughed.
"You left me on our wedding night."
"I know."
"You've been seeing your first love behind my back."
"I know."
"You drained money from companies controlled by my family."
"I..."
"Twenty-three million dollars."
His face went white.
"How did you find that?"
"That wasn't an answer."
Daniel stood suddenly.
"I never took it for myself."
"Where did it go?"
He looked at Marcus.
Then me.
"I was paying Claire's father."
"For what?"
"He was threatening me."
I froze.
"With what?"
Daniel's lips parted.
Before he could answer, the boardroom doors opened.
A woman walked in.
Claire.
She wore the cream coat from the SUV.
She looked at me.
Then at Daniel.
Then at the documents.
"You're too late," she said.
Daniel turned.
"Claire, what are you doing here?"
She ignored him.
She walked toward me.
"Your father left something for me too."
I stared at her.
"What?"
She smiled.
"A warning."
She placed an envelope on the table.
My father's handwriting was on the front.
For Hannah Mercer. Open only when Claire Whitmore returns.
My skin prickled.
"Where did you get that?"
Claire leaned closer.
"From the man who murdered my brother."
Daniel stopped breathing.
I looked at her.
"Your brother?"
"Elliot Whitmore."
"Dead?"
She nodded.
"He died three months ago."
I looked at Daniel.
He looked terrified.
Claire whispered:
"Your husband knows why."
Daniel slammed his hand onto the table.
"Claire, stop."
She turned toward him.
"You had your chance."
Then she looked at me again.
"Ask him where he was the night Elliot died."
I stared at Daniel.
He said nothing.
That silence answered more than words could.
I reached for the envelope.
My hands trembled.
The wax seal broke.
Inside was a single sheet.
Only one sentence.
Daniel did not marry you to steal your fortune. He married you because your father knew he was dangerous.
I read it twice.
Then a second line appeared beneath the first.
And because there is a child.
My breath stopped.
Daniel looked at me.
Claire closed her eyes.
May you like
And somewhere downstairs, a little girl's voice suddenly cried out.
"Mr. Brooks?"
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