Chapter 7 - The Man Who Chose Me
Marcus Mercer had chosen me.
Not Jason.
Not Amber.
A stranger.
That knowledge frightened me more than the affair.
The private investigator found Mercer’s history quickly.
He was fifty-three.
Former senior loan officer.
License revoked fourteen years earlier after allegations involving falsified mortgage applications.
Never convicted.
Afterward, he became a “private investment consultant.”
His companies changed every few years.
His partners changed too.
But the pattern didn't.
Middle-class and upper-middle-class women.
Good credit.
Family assets.
Recent inheritances.
Men entering their lives romantically.
Property transactions.
Loans.
Then breakups.
Rebecca was not the beginning.
She was victim number six that we could identify.
I was number nine.
“What was Jason?” I asked Marcus Bell.
“Recruiter. Participant. Beneficiary.”
“How much did he make?”
“We’re still tracing it.”
“And Amber?”
“Probably useful access.”
That hurt in a different way.
Jason had not fallen in love with Amber.
He had used her loyalty to reach me.
Then slept with her because he could.
Amber thought she was being chosen.
She had actually been another tool.
I should have felt sympathy.
I wasn't there yet.
The biggest question remained.
Why me?
Mercer’s notes provided an answer.
Three years earlier, my father had attended a commercial real-estate conference.
During a panel, he mentioned the Bennett family still owned undeveloped acreage north of Dallas.
Nothing secret.
Nothing dramatic.
Mercer was in the audience.
He researched the family.
Found me.
Single.
Good credit.
Large savings.
One of the eventual beneficiaries of the land.
Then Jason entered.
“How?” I asked.
Marcus Bell showed me another record.
Mercer paid Jason $12,000 eleven days before Jason and I “accidentally” met at my birthday dinner.
I remembered that night.
Amber invited coworkers.
She said Jason was a friend of a friend.
He arrived late.
Sat beside me.
Asked about books.
Remembered my favorite drink after hearing it once.
I had thought chemistry was magic.
Apparently it had been homework.
I locked myself in the hotel bathroom and cried for the first time since the wedding.
Not because Jason loved Amber.
Not even because of the money.
Because my memories were being stolen retroactively.
Our first date.
Our first Christmas.
His proposal.
Every moment now came with a question.
Was that real?
After an hour, I washed my face and went back to the table.
“Show me the rest.”
The notebook contained coded payments.
Mercer received percentages after loans funded.
Jason received commissions.
Linda sometimes received property through Cedar Ridge.
But her name appeared inconsistently.
Naomi believed Linda may have known the investments were shady without understanding the romance scheme.
Then we reached a section labeled B.
Bennett.
There was a timeline.
COURTHOUSE MARRIAGE.
HOUSE CLOSE.
POA.
HELOC.
LAND SALE.
CEREMONY.
SEPARATION.
SELL RESIDENCE.
Everything planned before Jason proposed.
I read the ceremony line twice.
“Why did the ceremony matter after we were already legally married?”
Naomi pointed toward another note.
Family optics.
Gift inflow.
Post-wedding emotional leverage.
The ceremony was supposed to make me emotionally unwilling to expose the marriage quickly.
Humiliation was part of the plan.
Jason assumed I would hide his betrayal because admitting my marriage collapsed hours after my wedding would embarrass me.
He had calculated my shame as an asset.
That was his second-biggest mistake.
His biggest came later.
Marcus Bell turned the final page.
One document was taped inside.
A photocopy of my father’s signature.
My mother's.
Mine.
And my younger sister’s.
Practice sheets.
Hundreds of attempts.
Mercer wasn't planning only to steal my land distribution.
He was preparing to forge the entire Bennett family.
Then my father called.
His voice was unsteady.
“Rachel, someone accessed the family company account.”
My blood went cold.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“How much?”
“Nothing was taken.”
“Then what did they do?”
“They downloaded our corporate records.”
Every shareholder list.
Every banking authorization.
Every signature file.
May you like
The scheme wasn't ending with me.
Mercer had been using my marriage to enter my entire family.
