Chapter 1 - THE ROOM HE DID NOT PAY FOR
Julian Hart did not answer immediately.
That frightened me more than the photograph.
“Julian.”
He removed his glasses and cleaned them with a handkerchief even though there was nothing on the lenses.
“Room 4186.”
I nodded once.
“Who booked it?”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“Not your husband.”
Something inside me went cold.
“Then who?”
Julian turned his monitor toward me.
The reservation had been made through a corporate hospitality account.
MorganWell Executive Relations.
Guest one: Adrian Morgan.
Guest two: Celeste Bain.
Special instruction:
Charge all incidentals to Vale Harbor Partnership Development.
I stared.
“He’s billing his affair to the deal he wants from my company?”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“That isn’t the part that concerns me most.”
He clicked another tab.
Room 4186 had been booked sixteen times in the past five months.
Always on nights Adrian claimed to have late meetings.
Always under the same account.
Sometimes Celeste appeared by name.
Sometimes as “C. Blake.”
I felt sick.
Eleven months of marriage.
Five months of hotel rooms.
Then Julian opened the billing history.
The suite charges had been approved by a Vale Harbor corporate access code.
I looked at him.
“Who authorized these?”
His expression hardened.
“Your husband shouldn’t have access to this code.”
“But someone gave it to him.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Julian hesitated.
Then said:
“Claudia Vance.”
I stopped breathing.
Claudia was Vale Harbor’s senior vice president of strategic partnerships.
She had personally recommended MorganWell to our board.
Three weeks earlier, during my inheritance briefing, she had sat across from me and praised Adrian’s leadership.
Julian continued.
“She has been pushing his partnership harder than anyone.”
I looked toward the rain streaking the office windows.
“Does she know Adrian is my husband?”
Julian almost laughed.
“Elise, everyone at the senior level knows.”
That hurt differently.
For months, people inside my father’s company had been watching my husband try to gain access to my inheritance.
Some of them were helping him.
Then Julian clicked one last file.
A scanned memorandum.
Emergency Interim Credit Authorization — MorganWell
Requested amount:
$38 million.
Collateral:
Future Vale Harbor partnership revenues.
Approval status:
Pending majority shareholder consent.
My name.
Elise Vale Morgan.
I stared at the document.
At the bottom was a signature line.
Mine.
Except someone had already signed it.
I had not.
May you like
My husband wasn’t only cheating on me inside my own hotel.
Someone had forged my signature to push thirty-eight million dollars toward his failing company.
