Chapter 8 - What Colleen Knew About My First Husband
Michael Bennett’s death had been ruled an accident.
Rain.
A rural road.
A vehicle traveling too fast.
Caleb was too young to remember him.
I had accepted the report because there had been no reason not to.
Now there was a reason to ask questions.
Not because I believed Colleen had caused anything.
Because she knew something.
Rebecca arranged a meeting.
Colleen arrived wearing pearls.
Of course she did.
“What do you mean, ‘why he really died’?”
Her composure flickered.
“I was upset.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
She looked toward Grant.
“You gave them my messages?”
“Yes.”
Her face hardened.
“You always choose women over family.”
Grant stared at her.
“I almost married Mara.”
“And look what she did to you.”
“No.”
His voice stayed quiet.
“Look what I did to her.”
That silenced Colleen for three seconds.
Then I asked again.
“Michael.”
She exhaled.
“He was drinking.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“His family covered it up.”
I stood.
“No.”
“Sit down, Mara.”
“Do not tell me to sit down.”
For once, she listened.
Colleen explained that Michael struggled with alcohol after our divorce.
I knew he drank occasionally.
I had never known it became serious.
The night he died, his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit.
His father used connections to keep that detail from becoming public because Michael worked for the family business.
“Why wasn’t I told?”
“Because you had Caleb.”
“They thought protecting Caleb meant lying to me?”
Colleen looked almost sympathetic.
“Yes.”
The irony was unbearable.
Another family calling secrecy protection.
“Why did you know?”
“My cousin handled insurance paperwork.”
Michael’s mother.
The family connection again.
Then Colleen revealed the deeper reason.
Michael had changed his estate plan two weeks before his death.
He removed his parents from administrative control of Caleb’s future property.
He wanted me to control it if anything happened.
“But I don’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the change was never filed.”
I stared.
“What happened to it?”
Colleen looked toward Grant.
“I found the unsigned draft years later.”
“Unsigned?”
“Michael signed his lawyer’s instruction letter, not the final trust amendment.”
So legally, it changed nothing.
But emotionally?
It changed everything.
Michael had wanted me involved.
Then Colleen admitted why she became interested when she learned I was dating again.
“I thought the property should stay connected to Michael’s family.”
“So you sent your son toward me?”
“I encouraged an introduction.”
“Because of land.”
“At first.”
Grant looked sick.
Then Colleen said something I had not expected.
“But Grant fell in love with you.”
I looked at him.
She continued.
“That ruined the plan.”
“What plan?”
“I wanted him to help keep the property from being sold outside the family.”
Grant’s face changed.
“You told me Caleb needed protection from developers.”
“I believed that.”
“You invested me in Brighton.”
“I introduced the opportunity.”
He stood.
“You knew they wanted Caleb’s parcel.”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Grant had been manipulated too.
But then Rebecca asked the important question:
“Who owns the remaining eighty-eight percent of Brighton Development?”
Colleen looked away.
We found out that afternoon.
May you like
A family holding company.
Controlled by Colleen.
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