Chapter 5 - THE MARRIAGE HIS MONEY COULDN’T SAVE
Damian followed Fiona into the garden.
This time, he did not demand an explanation.
He had finally learned that a demand was often the fastest way to make his wife retreat.
“Were you going to tell me?”
Fiona stood beneath the lights beside the swimming pool.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“When I knew I had somewhere to live.”
His chest tightened.
“You have several homes.”
“No.”
She turned toward him.
“You have several homes.”
Damian stared.
“The estate belongs to us.”
“On paper, it belongs to an O’Connor holding company.”
He opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
She was right.
The Paradise Valley estate, the Maryland residence, and several vacation properties were held through corporate structures.
Fiona had never cared while their marriage was happy.
Now those structures made leaving complicated.
“Why didn’t you ask me for a separate property?”
She laughed softly.
“Damian, I spent eight months asking you for dinner.”
There was no answer to that.
Fiona explained that she had consulted an attorney after Brenda accused her of stealing from the family.
Not because she wanted money.
Because she feared that if she challenged the household openly, she would lose her home and whatever independence she still possessed.
The attorney helped her separate her finances and understand her legal rights.
Harbor House was part of that independence.
A place where she could help others without needing Brenda’s approval.
A project with her own name attached.
Something that belonged to her decisions rather than Damian’s generosity.
“Do you still love me?” he asked.
Fiona’s eyes filled.
“That is the worst part.”
He stepped closer.
She stepped back.
“Please don’t.”
He stopped.
“I don’t know whether I can keep loving you like this.”
The sentence broke something in him.
Damian wanted to promise change.
He wanted to buy another house.
Hire another assistant.
Cancel a hundred meetings.
But he finally recognized that promises from a man with unlimited resources meant very little if he never changed his behavior.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Find out what happened to those employees.”
“Done.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Not because you want me to stay. Because those people deserve the truth.”
He nodded.
“And your family?”
“Stop making me responsible for your relationship with them.”
The next morning, Brenda moved into a luxury hotel.
Gertrude left for Palm Beach.
Damian suspended Brenda’s spending authority and removed Victor from financial decision-making pending an independent investigation.
He also hired an outside forensic accounting firm.
By Friday, the investigators confirmed that the suspicious transactions were real.
But they uncovered something more disturbing.
A second set of records existed.
Someone had created invoices suggesting Fiona personally received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Employee Support Initiative.
The documents were false.
But they were convincing enough to trigger a fraud investigation if presented without the underlying records.
Nadia called Damian.
“This is not merely an attempt to discredit Fiona.”
“What is it?”
“Someone has been preparing to frame her.”
Damian’s hands tightened.
“For what?”
“Misappropriation of charitable funds.”
Then Nadia told him the final detail.
The documents were dated three months before Fiona purchased Harbor House.
May you like
Brenda and Victor had been preparing the accusation long before Fiona knew she was in danger.
And someone had already sent the false evidence to the lender financing her project.
