Chapter 10 - WHY OUR MARRIAGE WAS PLANNED
The trust contained far more than money.
It contained ownership.
Warehouses.
Shipping rights.
Commercial property.
Voting interests in legitimate companies.
Enough assets to shift the balance of power across half the city.
The marriage between Ethan Carter and Jane Bennett had activated a dormant ownership structure created twenty years earlier.
My mother had designed it.
Ethan’s biological father had funded it.
My father had hidden it.
And none of them had told us.
“It was insurance,” my father said.
“Against what?” I snapped.
“Victor.”
The trust required two conditions.
Ethan had to become head of the Carter organization.
I had to marry into the Carter family.
I laughed bitterly.
“So our parents planned our marriage before we even knew each other?”
“No.”
My father shook his head.
“They created a contingency.”
“That is the same thing with better language.”
Ethan stood at the window.
He looked furious.
Not at me.
At everyone who had manipulated us.
Then something clicked.
“Did you know the trust existed when you offered me to Ethan?”
My father did not answer.
My stomach dropped.
“You did.”
“I knew part of it.”
“That’s why you agreed so quickly.”
“I wanted you protected.”
“You sold me.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
My voice echoed through the room.
“You used me to secure territory and activate a trust.”
My father looked shattered.
“I thought Ethan would protect you.”
I turned toward my husband.
“And you?”
His expression became unreadable.
“I knew marrying you gave me access to your father’s routes.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Why should I believe you?”
His jaw tightened.
“Because if I had known about the trust, I would never have married you without telling you.”
The answer surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because I know what it feels like to be used.”
Silence.
Then Brian entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We traced the message sent to Jane.”
“Russo?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Brian looked toward my father.
“The phone belongs to Derek.”
Ethan’s cousin.
The man who laughed before our wedding.
The one who called me breeding stock.
Derek Carter had been inside Ethan’s inner circle for years.
He knew our schedules.
Our guards.
Our house.
He knew everything.
Ethan’s expression became terrifyingly calm.
“Find him.”
Brian didn’t move.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Derek left the city two hours ago.”
“With who?”
Brian handed Ethan a security photograph.
Derek was getting into a car beside Victor Russo.
My father swore.
I stared at the image.
The betrayal had been inside Ethan’s family from the beginning.
Then Brian said:
“Derek accessed the trust documents yesterday.”
That meant he knew what our marriage had activated.
May you like
And if Victor knew too, then the next attack would not be about revenge.
It would be about control.
