Chapter 1 - THE WIFE HE NEVER REALLY KNEW
Nathan Brooks had been reviewing my financial documents for nearly twenty minutes when he finally removed his glasses.
“Claire, I need you to tell me exactly what your grandfather left you.”
I took a slow breath.
“Twenty-nine percent of Harborstone Capital.”
His pen stopped moving.
For a moment, the only sound in his Boston office was the quiet hum of the air conditioner.
Then Nathan leaned forward.
“Harborstone Capital? The private investment firm?”
I nodded.
He stared at me.
“Your grandfather was William Hart?”
“Yes.”
Nathan sat back.
William Hart had spent forty years building one of New England's most successful private investment companies. He avoided publicity, drove the same car for fifteen years, and lived in a modest house overlooking the water.
When he died, most newspapers devoted only a few paragraphs to him.
Very few people knew that Harborstone Capital held major interests in technology, logistics, commercial property, and hospitality.
One of those investments was particularly important.
Prescott Global.
Aaron's company.
Nathan looked at me carefully.
“How much of Prescott Global does Harborstone own?”
“Thirty-four percent of its voting shares.”
He exhaled.
“And you own twenty-nine percent of Harborstone?”
“Yes.”
My inheritance did not give me direct control of Aaron's company. Harborstone had other investors, an independent board, and its own governance rules.
But Grandfather had also designated me as his successor to one seat on Harborstone's five-member investment committee.
Until now, I had never exercised that right.
“Does Aaron know any of this?”
“He knows my grandfather left me an investment interest. It was listed in the financial disclosures attached to our prenup.”
“But he doesn't know what's underneath it?”
“No. He never asked.”
Nathan shook his head.
For three years, Aaron had told people I came from an ordinary family and married into wealth.
I never corrected him.
Grandfather taught me that money was a tool, not an identity. I had wanted my marriage to be about the life Aaron and I built together, not the assets either of us brought into it.
Somewhere along the way, Aaron interpreted my silence as proof that I had nothing.
Nathan closed the folder.
“We'll verify the trust records, the prenup, and the current ownership documents before making any decisions.”
“I'm not trying to take his company.”
“I know.”
“I just want a divorce.”
“And you're entitled to pursue one without surrendering your separate assets.”
My phone vibrated.
Aaron.
Then his mother, Vivian.
Then his younger sister, Brooke.
I turned the phone facedown.
Nathan smiled faintly.
“Your Slack message certainly got everyone's attention.”
“I wasn't trying to be subtle.”
“No. You were remarkably thorough.”
For the first time that day, I laughed.
Then his assistant knocked.
“Mr. Brooks, there's a woman downstairs asking for Mrs. Prescott.”
I frowned.
“Who?”
“She says her name is Olivia Park.”
I recognized it immediately.
Olivia was Prescott Global's chief financial officer.
We had spoken at company events, but we weren't close.
Nathan looked at me.
“Did you ask her to come?”
“No.”
He hesitated.
“Would you like me to tell her you're unavailable?”
Before I could answer, his assistant added something that made my stomach tighten.
“She says it's urgent. She has documents concerning the company's finances.”
I stared at Nathan.
Then the assistant continued.
“And she says Jasmine Cole has been using your husband's executive authority to approve payments he may not know about.”
I slowly sat back.
May you like
Apparently, Aaron's affair wasn't the only secret hidden inside Prescott Global.
And the woman who had spent three years standing beside my husband might have been taking much more than my place at his side.
