Chapter 16 - The Line George Crossed
Ethan moved between George and me.
“What did you mean about my father?”
George rolled his eyes.
“Nothing.”
“You said it deliberately.”
“I was making a point.”
“What point?”
“That Edward isn’t here to tell his version.”
I stared at George.
My husband had died after a heart attack.
There had never been anything suspicious about it.
I refused to let anger turn coincidence into fantasy.
“Do not dramatize this.”
I said it to Ethan as much as George.
George smiled.
“Finally, some sense.”
But Patricia looked ill.
I noticed.
“Patricia?”
She shook her head.
“Nothing.”
“Look at me.”
She did.
“What are you afraid of?”
George stepped toward her.
“Patricia.”
She backed away.
“Stop saying my name like that.”
He froze.
Decades of marriage seemed to collapse inside that sentence.
Patricia looked at me.
“The week before Edward died, George met him.”
My heart tightened.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
George sighed.
“This is absurd.”
Patricia continued.
“When George came home, he was furious.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Edward was going to ruin everything.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“That proves nothing.”
I appreciated that he said it.
We needed facts.
Not grief-driven accusations.
Patricia nodded.
“I know.”
She wiped her eyes.
“But after Edward died, George said the problem had solved itself.”
Silence.
George laughed sharply.
“Because he was dead.”
Patricia flinched.
“That does not mean I caused it.”
“No one said you did.”
I replied.
“And we are not going to.”
George looked surprised.
I continued.
“If there is evidence, investigators can examine it.”
“If there isn’t, we will not invent it.”
Ethan looked at me.
I could see gratitude in his eyes.
Pain can make people reckless.
I refused to give George that advantage.
Renee’s phone rang.
She answered.
After less than a minute, her face changed.
“What?”
Ethan asked.
She ended the call.
“Our forensic team found deleted correspondence in Charles’s archived company account.”
Charles looked away.
“Between Charles and George?”
“Yes.”
“How far back?”
“Four years.”
I frowned.
“Anything about Edward?”
“No.”
She looked at Charles.
“But there is something about Ethan.”
Charles’s shoulders tightened.
Renee opened an email.
“The message says, ‘Once the marriage is secured, control becomes easier.’”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Ethan stared at George.
Renee continued.
“Charles replied, ‘He trusts her completely.’”
Vanessa began crying again.
This time Ethan did not move toward her.
George looked at Charles with pure hatred.
Charles shouted.
“You wrote it.”
“You agreed.”
“You paid me.”
“You took it.”
The partnership between them was finished.
Each man suddenly became eager to sacrifice the other.
I watched Ethan read the messages.
Every line stripped away another illusion.
The engagement.
The business deal.
Charles’s loyalty.
George’s friendship with his father.
Finally, Ethan looked at Vanessa.
“One question.”
She wiped her face.
“Anything.”
“Did you know they planned to use our marriage to influence company control?”
She hesitated.
One second.
Two.
Three.
Then she whispered.
“Not at first.”
May you like
Ethan’s face fell.
And those three words ended what remained of their future.
