Chapter 5 - THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENTI barely slept.
At 5:13 a.m., my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman's voice whispered:
“Julian didn't marry you because of the money.”
I sat upright.
“Who is this?”
“He married you because of something your father knows.”
“Who are you?”
The caller hung up.
I stared at the phone.
Dad had heard everything.
“What does she mean?”
He said nothing.
That scared me.
“Dad?”
He finally looked at me.
“There is something I should have told you.”
He walked to his study and returned with an envelope.
Inside was a newspaper clipping.
Twenty-two years old.
A corporate scandal.
A construction company collapse.
A missing executive.
And one name.
Richard Hale.
Julian's father.
I looked at Dad.
“You knew him.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He worked for my company.”
I read the article again.
Richard Hale had been accused of embezzling millions from a development project.
He disappeared before trial.
Dad had testified against him.
Suddenly everything made sense.
Victoria didn't just hate me.
She hated my family.
Julian hadn't merely married into wealth.
He had married the daughter of the man his father blamed for losing everything.
“You knew?”
Dad nodded.
“I didn't know Julian was his son when you met him.”
My blood ran cold.
“Then why didn't you stop the wedding?”
“We tried.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
Dad handed me another document.
An anonymous complaint sent to my father two months before the wedding.
It warned:
DO NOT ALLOW YOUR DAUGHTER TO MARRY JULIAN HALE.
Attached was a photograph of Julian.
My father had hired investigators.
But every trail ended.
Until now.
I looked up.
“So they knew who I was from the beginning.”
“Yes.”
My mother whispered:
“And maybe this isn't about your money at all.”
Mr. Carter called again.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Julian's father didn't steal fifteen million.”
My heart stopped.
“Then who did?”
“The missing money was transferred through a holding company.”
“Whose?”
“Your father's.”
Silence swallowed the room.
My father looked at the paperwork.
His face had gone white.
“That can't be.”
Mr. Carter continued.
“The holding company was created using your father's corporate credentials.”
Dad grabbed the papers.
“I never created this.”
I looked at him.
“Then someone forged your signature too.”
The pieces were falling into place.
Someone had spent twenty-two years building a revenge plan.
And somehow, I had become the final piece.
Then Mr. Carter said:
“There is one more name on the original file.”
May you like
I waited.
“Natalie Price.”
