Chapter 13 - THE WOMAN HE THOUGHT HE COULD CONTROL|
Vanessa came to the trust office the next morning.
She looked pale and exhausted, but she carried herself differently. The confident smile she had worn at the gala was gone.
“I brought copies,” she said.
She placed a folder on the table.
Inside were emails between Nathaniel and a private financial consultant. The earliest message was dated eighteen months before our wedding.
The subject line read:
WHITMORE BENEFICIARY — STATUS UNKNOWN
Nathaniel had asked the consultant to identify Samuel's surviving descendants.
The consultant had found my mother.
Then he had found me.
I read the messages slowly.
In one, Nathaniel wrote:
The granddaughter is unmarried and has no apparent interest in the company. I want a complete background report before I approach her.
Another message appeared six months later.
Proceed with the introduction. Do not mention the trust. I will handle the personal side.
I closed the folder.
“He planned our meeting.”
Vanessa nodded.
“He told me he met you at a charity event.”
“That was the story.”
“He had arranged for you to be invited.”
I remembered the evening.
Nathaniel had approached me while I was helping an elderly woman find her seat. He had been charming, attentive, and unexpectedly humble. He had asked about my work, my mother, and my grandfather.
I had thought he was interested in me.
Now I wondered whether every question had been part of an investigation.
“Why did you bring me this?” I asked.
Vanessa hesitated.
“Because I believed him when he said he loved me. Then I discovered he had been lying to both of us.”
“Are you sure the baby is his?”
She looked away.
“I had a relationship before Nathaniel. It ended before I became involved with him. I don't know the exact dates anymore.”
“Does he know?”
“He knows there is a possibility.”
I studied her face.
“Is that why he announced the pregnancy so publicly?”
“He wanted to force you out before anyone could question the timeline. If I was introduced as the future mother of his heir, the company would assume the succession was settled.”
The pieces began to connect.
The public humiliation had not been an impulsive act.
It had been a performance.
Nathaniel wanted the world to see me as a powerless wife with no claim to his future.
He wanted Vanessa presented as the mother of the next Ashford generation.
And he wanted the trust beneficiary gone before the truth emerged.
“What happens now?” Vanessa asked.
“We tell the truth.”
“He'll destroy me.”
“He has already tried to destroy me.”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“I know.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then she pushed one final document across the table.
It was a prenatal appointment summary.
The date was clear.
The pregnancy had begun before Nathaniel and Vanessa's relationship, according to the medical timeline.
May you like
Vanessa looked up.
“I think he knew the child might not be his.”
