Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN THEY WANTED TO BLAME -
We left the hospital shortly after noon.
Instead of booking a room at one of the hotels owned by Blackwood Holdings, I rented a furnished apartment under Mara’s name.
It was small, quiet, and located across town from the estate.
There were no marble floors.
There were no servants.
There were no portraits of dead Blackwoods watching from the walls.
Elena stood in the living room and looked at the plain gray couch.
“I love it.”
The words broke something inside me.
I set the suitcases down and turned toward her.
“You love this?”
“It feels like no one can hear us.”
I pulled her carefully into my arms.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Then Elena began to cry.
Not the silent tears I had heard in the foyer.
These tears came from somewhere deeper.
“I thought you would believe them.”
“I should have seen what was happening.”
“She always stopped when you came home.”
“I still should have seen it.”
Elena stepped away and wiped her face.
“Lucas told me you already suspected I was stealing from you.”
I stared at her.
“He said you were only waiting until after the baby was born to divorce me.”
“That is not true.”
“He showed me emails.”
“What emails?”
She retrieved her phone from her bag and opened a hidden folder.
Inside were screenshots of messages that appeared to come from my company account.
One read, Elena has become a liability.
Another read, Once the child is born, I will remove her from the estate.
The language sounded formal enough to resemble mine.
The email address was nearly identical.
Only one letter was different.
My mother and Lucas had not merely abused Elena.
They had constructed an entire world in which she believed I had abandoned her.
“Why did you save these?”
“I needed proof that I wasn’t imagining things.”
She scrolled farther.
There were photographs of bruises.
Audio recordings of my mother’s threats.
Copies of financial forms carrying Elena’s forged signature.
One video showed Lucas placing a stack of documents in front of her.
“You will sign these,” he said from behind the camera.
“I don’t understand them,” Elena answered.
“You don’t need to understand.”
“I want to call Daniel.”
“My brother already approved everything.”
The video ended.
I felt a rage unlike anything I had known before.
It was not loud.
It was cold and focused.
I sent every file to Mara and to my attorney, Nathan Cole.
Then my phone rang.
My mother’s name appeared on the screen.
I answered.
“Daniel, we need to resolve this privately.”
“You ordered my pregnant wife to wash your feet.”
“Elena is exaggerating.”
“I saw you.”
There was a moment of silence.
Then her voice changed.
The softness disappeared.
“If you challenge me, I will tell the board Elena stole company funds.”
“You forged her signature.”
“You cannot prove that.”
I looked at Elena’s hidden folder.
“I think you are about to discover how much I can prove.”
My mother laughed quietly.
“You still don’t understand.”
“What don’t I understand?”
“The money was transferred under your authorization too.”
The call ended.
Seconds later, Nathan sent me a copy of another document.
May you like
It contained my digital signature.
According to the record, I had personally approved every transfer.
