Chapter 9 - THE NIGHT BEFORE OUR WEDDING
Vanessa had disappeared the night before Adrian and I married.
I never knew.
Adrian did.
He had received a call at 2:00 a.m.
Vanessa was in a private hospital after an overdose.
Not accidental.
Not recreational.
She had tried to end her life.
Adrian left our rehearsal dinner early without telling me why.
I remembered.
He said there was a shipping emergency.
He came back at dawn.
Pale.
Distant.
I had thought it was nerves.
“It was her,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
Vanessa looked humiliated.
“I didn’t want Evelyn to know.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want to become another reason you postponed your life.”
But she already had.
Adrian sat beside Vanessa in that hospital until she woke.
She begged him to leave.
He did.
He married me that afternoon.
But something inside him stayed unfinished.
Not love exactly.
Guilt.
Responsibility.
Maybe obsession.
Six years later, when Vanessa returned, Kane knew exactly where to push.
“He told me Vanessa had never recovered from losing me,” Adrian said.
I stared.
“And you believed that meant you loved her.”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt.
But less than lies.
Vanessa spoke quietly.
“I let him believe it.”
“Why?”
“Because I was lonely. Angry. And because being chosen over you felt like proof that I hadn’t wasted my life.”
I looked at her.
“You did not steal him.”
She flinched.
“I helped.”
“Yes.”
“But Adrian chose.”
Silence.
Adrian took that sentence without defense.
Good.
Then Caleb entered with news.
“Kane called Malcolm.”
Adrian frowned.
“Malcolm is alive?”
Apparently no one knew where Malcolm had been since the medical breach.
His phone had remained dark.
Now agents traced a call to a hospice facility outside Milwaukee.
Malcolm was dying from pancreatic cancer.
I expected another scheme.
Instead, he asked to speak to Adrian alone.
Adrian refused.
“If Evelyn isn’t in the room, I’m not coming.”
That surprised me.
Malcolm looked almost amused when we arrived.
“You finally learned partnership.”
Adrian stood rigid.
“Where is Kane?”
Malcolm ignored him.
He looked at the twins through a video on my phone.
“They’re beautiful.”
“Answer him.”
Malcolm smiled faintly.
“I helped Kane scare Evelyn away.”
Adrian’s fists tightened.
Malcolm continued.
“But I did not authorize murder.”
“You expect that to comfort me?”
“No.”
“Why did you do it?”
“Because your father asked me to.”
The room went silent.
Adrian stared.
“My father?”
Richard Mercer.
Dead five years.
Malcolm nodded.
“Richard believed Evelyn made you vulnerable.”
I felt cold.
“He wanted us divorced?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He had discovered Patrick’s trust.”
I frowned.
“The children’s trust?”
“No.”
Malcolm looked at me.
“The other one.”
Of course there was another.
Patrick Mercer had created a second trust no one had mentioned.
Not for Adrian’s children.
For Adrian’s wife.
If Adrian died married, his surviving spouse would gain temporary control of Mercer Consolidated until any children reached adulthood.
Meaning six years ago, before anyone knew I was pregnant, I had unknowingly stood between Malcolm’s branch and the empire.
May you like
Richard Mercer had wanted me gone.
And Robert Kane had simply turned that fear into an industry.
