Chapter 8 - SARAH LEARNED SHE HAD BEEN AVENGING THE WRONG MAN
Sarah asked for a meeting after her attorney received Daniel’s old file.
Marcus refused a private conversation.
They met with lawyers present.
No Lily.
Sarah looked thinner.
Exhausted.
No carefully styled smile.
“Is it real?”
Marcus did not answer.
Rachel did.
“The documents appear authentic and are being independently verified.”
Sarah stared at Julian’s name.
“My father never told me.”
“He was under confidentiality restrictions for a period,” Rachel said.
Sarah shook her head.
“Julian told me my father lost everything because Hannah’s family protected themselves.”
Evelyn had provided a written statement too.
Daniel was eventually cleared internally.
But pride kept him from reconnecting.
Then Sarah whispered:
“Julian said Seabrook was bought with money taken from my father.”
False.
Seabrook had belonged to Hannah’s grandmother decades earlier.
Different asset.
Different history.
Julian built a revenge story from fragments.
Marcus finally spoke.
“You could have asked me.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Would you have believed me?”
“I don’t know.”
Honest.
“But you didn’t ask.”
She cried.
Then:
“I stopped the plan when we got married.”
“For a while.”
“Yes.”
“Then you started again.”
“I thought I could expose what they did to Dad.”
“By drugging Lily?”
Sarah flinched.
She began:
“I never—”
Then stopped.
Her attorney touched her arm.
No admission.
Fine.
Marcus continued:
“You recorded my daughter while she was distressed.”
Sarah cried harder.
“I told myself the drops were harmless.”
Marcus felt his hands turn cold.
Her lawyer immediately said:
“Sarah.”
She closed her mouth.
Too late emotionally.
Not necessarily legally.
Then she whispered:
“I hated myself every time.”
Marcus looked at her.
“But you did it again.”
“Yes.”
There was nothing dramatic after that.
No screaming.
Some truths arrive too exhausted for theatrics.
Then Sarah said something that surprised everyone.
“Julian has another copy of the Seabrook amendment.”
“Why?”
“He was going to use your signature from the travel authorization if you refused.”
Marcus stared.
“Forge it?”
“I don’t know.”
That sounded like a lie.
She corrected herself.
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Julian had not trusted Sarah either.
He had prepared a fallback using Marcus’s scanned signature.
Then Sarah added:
“He already used it once.”
Marcus stopped.
“Where?”
“On a confidentiality agreement with the buyer.”
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The private equity firm had a document bearing Marcus Vance’s signature.
A document he had never signed.
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