Chapter 8 - THE TRAPWe decided not to fight the invalidation request immediately.
Instead, we let them believe it was working.
I stayed quiet.
I stopped posting.
I stopped answering Julian.
And I made one decision.
I would let him think I was scared.
For three days, nothing happened.
Then the Hale family sent a settlement offer.
It was insulting.
$10,000.
In exchange for silence.
I stared at the paper.
I laughed.
My father didn't.
“This isn't a settlement.”
“What is it?”
“A confession.”
The document acknowledged that Julian had demanded I leave the household shortly after marriage.
It admitted financial disputes.
It mentioned the forty-five thousand dollars.
But it carefully avoided the forged documents.
That was their mistake.
We rejected the offer.
The next morning, a detective came to our house.
Julian had filed a theft complaint.
He claimed I had stolen family property.
I handed the detective my passport.
“My property.”
Then my bank statement.
“My money.”
Then photographs of every item I had packed.
“Everything I left with belonged to me before the wedding.”
The detective looked at the paperwork.
“What about the documents?”
I smiled.
“You should ask Julian why the signature on one of them is not mine.”
That changed his expression.
Two hours later, Mr. Carter called.
“The county clerk wants to speak with us.”
“About what?”
“The signature.”
It had already triggered an internal review.
Someone at the courthouse had noticed that the witness stamp appeared on multiple unrelated documents.
The same witness.
The same date.
The same handwriting.
Three different marriages.
All connected to Julian's family.
My chest tightened.
“How many?”
“So far, six.”
Six women.
Six marriages.
Six financial disputes.
I whispered:
“How many of them lost money?”
Mr. Carter replied:
“Every one.”
I felt sick.
Julian's family had done this before.
I wasn't their first target.
I was simply the first woman who walked away before they got what they wanted.
Then we discovered something worse.
Five of the women had signed confidentiality agreements.
But one had refused.
Her name was Laura Bennett.
She had been married to Julian's cousin.
And she lived less than twenty minutes away.
I drove to see her.
She opened the door.
The moment she saw me, she whispered:
“You're Elena.”
“Yes.”
She looked frightened.
Then she stepped aside.
“Come in.”
The first thing I saw inside her house was a wall covered with photographs.
Every photograph showed a Hale family member.
And in the center was one photograph with a red circle around it.
Victoria.
Underneath it, Laura had written:
SHE'S THE BRAIN.
Then Laura turned toward me.
“But Julian…”
She shook her head.
“He's not the mastermind.”
I frowned.
“Then who is?”
May you like
Laura pointed to the oldest photograph.
“His father.”
