Chapter 6
The anonymous messages kept arriving.
Photographs.
Meeting dates.
Copies of emails.
A calendar invitation from Lawrence Whitfield's office.
Every new piece made my stomach tighten.
But Camille warned me not to accept everything at face value.
"Marcus, we need to verify the source."
I nodded.
"Can we find out who sent them?"
"We can ask the person to speak with us through proper channels."
I replied.
My attorney would like to review your information. Are you willing to talk?
The answer came twenty minutes later.
Yes. My name is Alicia Grant.
I stared at the screen.
Alicia.
I remembered her.
She worked as Lawrence Whitfield's executive assistant.
I'd met her at our engagement party.
She was quiet.
Professional.
The kind of person who remembered everyone's name.
I immediately forwarded the message to Camille.
She arranged a meeting at her office.
Alicia arrived the next afternoon carrying a small folder.
She looked nervous.
I stood when she entered.
"Thank you for coming."
She nodded.
"I'm sorry about what happened at the wedding."
I swallowed.
"Thank you."
Camille invited her to sit.
Then asked her to explain what she knew.
Alicia took a breath.
"I've worked for Lawrence Whitfield for four years."
She looked at me.
"About a year ago, he started meeting regularly with Leonard Carter."
My stomach tightened.
"What were they discussing?"
"A development deal involving family land."
I nodded.
She continued.
"At first, I thought it was ordinary business."
"What changed?"
Alicia looked down.
"Mr. Whitfield began asking about your personal finances."
I felt cold.
"What kind of questions?"
"Whether you owned property separately. Whether you had access to a trust. Whether you were planning to marry."
I stared at her.
She continued.
"Then Nia started attending meetings."
My chest tightened.
"When?"
"Before your engagement."
I closed my eyes.
I remembered proposing to Nia at a rooftop restaurant.
She cried.
She said yes.
She told me it was the happiest night of her life.
Now Alicia was telling me she'd already attended meetings about my inheritance.
I took a breath.
"Did she know why the trust mattered?"
Alicia nodded.
"Yes."
The answer hurt.
But I needed the truth.
She opened her folder.
Inside were copies of meeting agendas and emails she'd handled as part of her work.
Camille reviewed them carefully.
One email contained a sentence that made my hands shake.
Nia needs Marcus committed before the authorization package is presented.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
My stomach turned.
"Who wrote this?"
Alicia pointed to the sender.
Lawrence Whitfield.
Nia's father.
I looked at the date.
Two weeks before my proposal.
I felt sick.
Then Alicia showed us another email.
This one was from Nia.
Dad, he's already talking about getting married. Don't push him too fast or he'll get suspicious.
I stared at the words.
My throat tightened.
Camille looked at me.
"Marcus?"
I shook my head.
"Give me a minute."
I stood and walked toward the window.
I could barely breathe.
The woman I loved had been discussing my proposal like a business negotiation.
I thought about every moment we'd shared.
Had any of it been real?
I didn't know.
And that uncertainty hurt more than the documents.
Alicia continued carefully.
"There's something else."
I turned.
"What?"
"Lawrence wanted your mother excluded from the trust discussions."
My jaw tightened.
"Why?"
"Because she kept asking questions."
I stared at her.
Alicia looked down.
"Mr. Whitfield said Evelyn Carter was the biggest obstacle."
My chest tightened.
I thought about Mom sitting alone at the wedding.
The money scattered around her.
Her trembling hands.
Her apology.
She hadn't been interfering.
She'd been protecting me.
And Nia had tried to humiliate her into silence.
I sat down slowly.
"Did Nia know about that?"
Alicia hesitated.
"She knew your mother had discovered the draft documents."
I nodded.
"Anything else?"
Alicia opened another page.
It showed a note from a planning meeting.
Evelyn must not interrupt closing schedule.
I stared at it.
The words were cold.
Clinical.
As though my mother were an inconvenience to be removed.
I looked at Camille.
"This is enough, right?"
She answered carefully.
"It's significant evidence. But we still need to establish the full legal picture."
I nodded.
She continued.
"We'll protect your interests and pursue accountability based on what the records support."
I took a breath.
I wasn't interested in revenge.
Not anymore.
I wanted justice.
And I wanted my mother to know she hadn't been wrong.
That evening, I drove to Mom's house.
She was sitting on the porch watering her flowers.
When she saw me, she smiled.
"Hey, baby."
I sat beside her.
For a moment, I couldn't speak.
She looked worried.
"Marcus?"
I took her hand.
"Mom, you were right."
Her expression changed.
"About what?"
"Nia knew about the trust."
Mom closed her eyes.
I continued.
"She and her father were planning to get me to sign documents."
Tears filled her eyes.
"Oh, Marcus."
I swallowed.
"They knew before we got engaged."
Mom covered her mouth.
I looked down.
"I feel like an idiot."
She immediately shook her head.
"No."
I laughed bitterly.
"Mom, I was planning to marry someone who was using me."
She squeezed my hand.
"That doesn't make you foolish for loving someone."
I looked at her.
She continued.
"It means she betrayed the trust you gave her."
My eyes filled.
I leaned forward and hugged her.
For a long time, we sat together.
Then she whispered something I would never forget.
"Baby, you didn't lose your future at that wedding."
I pulled back.
She smiled through tears.
"You saved it."
For the first time since leaving the conservatory, I believed her.
But the legal battle was only beginning.
Because the following morning, Camille received a new document.
A notice of an emergency trustee meeting.
May you like
Scheduled for the next day.
And Uncle Leonard was proposing to approve the land sale without my consent.
