Chapter 4 - THE SECRET IN MY DIVORCE FILE
I didn't sleep that night.
Neither did Julian.
Emma stayed with my mother at the hotel because she had fallen asleep before we left the reception, completely unaware that the adults around her were trying to understand how five years of our lives had been manipulated.
At three in the morning, I was sitting in Julian's hotel suite staring at a copy of the mysterious bank account.
I couldn't stop looking at my own name.
Evelyn Mercer.
That name had once belonged to me.
Now it felt like evidence.
Julian came into the room carrying coffee.
“You need sleep.”
“So do you.”
“I married a lawyer.”
“You knew what you were getting.”
“I thought lawyers slept occasionally.”
I smiled despite myself.
Then I looked back at the document.
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
“Who would put that much money in an account they knew I didn't control?”
“Someone who expected the account to become useful later.”
“Useful for what?”
Julian sat beside me.
“To establish a false financial history.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
He was quiet.
Then he said,
“Because five years ago, someone may have been preparing for a lawsuit.”
I looked at him.
“Against me?”
“Possibly.”
The next morning, Natalie brought us the first major breakthrough.
The account had been created using documents connected to my divorce.
But the signature on the application wasn't mine.
It had been electronically reproduced.
The identification information came from my divorce records.
My social security number.
My previous address.
My former legal name.
Someone had access to everything.
I asked the obvious question.
“Who?”
Natalie looked at Marcus.
“Your former attorney.”
Marcus stiffened.
“Which one?”
“David Lang.”
I remembered him.
He had represented Marcus during the divorce.
I had always disliked him.
Not because he was aggressive.
Because he was too interested in controlling the narrative.
During the divorce, David had repeatedly suggested that I should accept less than I was entitled to because fighting would damage my professional reputation.
At the time, I thought he was simply protecting his client.
Now I wasn't so sure.
Marcus called him.
David answered immediately.
“Marcus.”
“We need to talk.”
“About the acquisition?”
“About Evelyn.”
Silence.
That silence told me more than his words would have.
Marcus put the call on speaker.
“What did you do with my ex-wife's divorce records?”
David laughed nervously.
“I don't understand.”
“You had access to her identification documents.”
“As did the court.”
“You created a financial account in her name.”
“What?”
Marcus's voice hardened.
“Don't lie to me.”
David went silent.
Then he said,
“I didn't create anything.”
“Who did?”
“I don't know.”
Natalie wrote something on a notepad.
I watched her.
She wrote:
ASK ABOUT TRUST.
My stomach tightened.
“What trust?” I asked.
David didn't answer.
Marcus looked at me.
Then back at the phone.
“David.”
“What?”
“Did you know Evelyn's family had an investment trust?”
David finally spoke.
“Yes.”
I froze.
I had never told Marcus about it.
My grandmother had created a modest family trust years before my marriage.
It wasn't enormous.
But it had grown significantly because of investments my grandmother had made decades earlier.
I had always kept it separate from my marriage.
Marcus had known generally that I had inherited money.
But he had never known the exact structure.
Or so I thought.
David said quietly,
“The trust was mentioned during the divorce.”
“That wasn't supposed to be disclosed,” I said.
“I didn't disclose it.”
“Then who did?”
No answer.
Natalie leaned toward the phone.
“Mr. Lang, this is Natalie Brooks.”
David recognized the name.
His voice changed.
“I don't know what you're implying.”
“I'm not implying anything.”
“Then why are you calling?”
“Because your name appears in a chain of documents connected to fraudulent financial accounts.”
Silence.
Then David said,
“I want a lawyer.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Marcus looked at me.
“I didn't know.”
“About my trust?”
“Yes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That's what you always said.”
He flinched.
But this time, I didn't enjoy seeing it.
Something bigger was happening.
By noon, Natalie had traced another connection.
The company that received the first transfer from Mercer Strategic had previously employed Daniel Vance.
Chloe's brother.
But Daniel had not worked there alone.
His supervisor had been David Lang.
I looked at Julian.
“That can't be coincidence.”
“No.”
Marcus was pacing.
“Why would my lawyer work with Chloe's brother?”
Natalie answered.
“Because they may have been building something together.”
“What?”
She opened a file.
Inside was a copy of a confidential document from my divorce.
It was an asset statement.
My name appeared at the top.
But the numbers were wrong.
Someone had added an investment account that didn't belong to me.
The balance?
Two hundred thousand dollars.
The same amount deposited into the fraudulent account.
I understood immediately.
“They were trying to make it look like I hid marital assets.”
Marcus stopped pacing.
“But you didn't.”
“No.”
He looked at the document.
“Then if this had been used in court…”
“I could have been accused of fraud.”
Natalie nodded.
“And your professional license could have been investigated.”
I stared at the page.
Five years ago, I had believed Marcus's divorce strategy was simply cruelty.
Now I understood it might have been something more calculated.
If the account had been discovered during litigation, my credibility could have been destroyed.
My career.
My reputation.
My ability to testify in financial cases.
Everything.
I looked at Marcus.
“Did you know?”
His eyes filled with something I had never seen from him before.
Shame.
“No.”
I believed him.
That was the strange part.
For the first time in years, I believed Marcus Mercer.
Because he looked like a man discovering that his own life had been built on information other people had fed him.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His face turned white.
“What happened?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“Mercer Strategic's board just received an anonymous package.”
“What was in it?”
“Documents.”
“What documents?”
He swallowed.
“Your divorce file.”
My heart dropped.
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because whoever sent it claims you stole money from me.”
I stood.
“That isn't possible.”
“I know.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“They aren't trying to destroy your company anymore.”
Julian looked at me.
“They're trying to destroy me.”
Natalie stood too.
“Not just you.”
She opened the package.
Inside was one final document.
A letter addressed to the board of Mercer Strategic Holdings.
The final sentence read:
IF EVELYN MERCER IS ALLOWED TO INFLUENCE THE ACQUISITION, JULIAN RHODES WILL BE EXPOSED FOR WHAT HE REALLY DID TO THE MERCER FAMILY.
Julian stared at it.
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He didn't answer.
May you like
Because suddenly, for the first time since our wedding night, I saw something in Julian's face I had never seen before.
Fear.
