Chapter 5 - The Man I Almost Married
Ethan stopped pretending when I showed him the bank transfer.
His shoulders dropped.
His eyes closed.
“Where did you get that?”
“That’s your question?”
“Evelyn…”
“Nearly two million dollars.”
“It isn’t what you think.”
I laughed.
“People only say that when it’s exactly what you think.”
Detective Reyes stood beside us.
“Mr. Brooks, you need to be very careful now.”
Ethan looked at the officers.
Then at me.
Finally, he sat.
“Preston invested in my company.”
“Through shell corporations?”
“He didn’t want your family knowing.”
“My family was helping him.”
He rubbed his face.
“It started two years ago.”
My stomach turned.
We had been together three years.
“How long have you been reporting back to him?”
Ethan’s silence answered.
I stepped away.
Every family dinner.
Every argument.
Every conversation about the hotel.
Every time I told Ethan I was worried about Preston.
He had been taking notes.
“I trusted you with Sophie.”
His eyes filled again.
“That part was real.”
“Stop saying that.”
“It was.”
“You helped frame her.”
“I never agreed to violence!”
“But humiliation was fine?”
“No.”
“You let two hundred people believe an eight-year-old was a thief.”
“I thought Preston would pretend to find the phone somewhere else after you signed.”
Detective Reyes leaned forward.
“And the bracelet?”
“To make the threat more serious.”
“You mean to make the child look like a repeat offender.”
Ethan looked down.
I felt like I was staring at a stranger wearing the face of someone I loved.
Then my phone rang.
Marcus.
“Evelyn, Preston is trying to leave the hotel.”
“Police are there.”
“He isn’t using the lobby.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where?”
“Loading dock.”
I put Marcus on speaker.
“He took two suitcases from the honeymoon suite and asked a driver to take him to a private terminal at Midway.”
Detective Reyes was already moving.
“Send us the vehicle information.”
“I did.”
Vanessa’s voice suddenly sounded in the background.
“Marcus! Give me that phone!”
I frowned.
“Vanessa?”
A struggle.
Then Vanessa came on.
“Evelyn, listen to me.”
“What?”
“I didn’t know about Sophie.”
“You stood there while she bled.”
“I know.”
“You cared more about your dress.”
“I panicked.”
“That isn’t an excuse.”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“But Preston left without me.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He took my passport.”
Reyes stopped walking.
“Why would he take your passport?”
Vanessa swallowed audibly.
“Because one of the offshore accounts is in my name.”
The hallway seemed to tilt.
“You knew about the missing money?”
“I knew he moved money. He told me it was tax planning.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
“Millions.”
Ethan muttered something under his breath.
I turned toward him.
“What did you say?”
He looked horrified.
“Vanessa isn’t the only name.”
Detective Reyes stepped back.
“Whose else?”
Ethan looked straight at me.
“There’s an account in Sophie’s name.”
For a second, I couldn’t breathe.
“What?”
“I never touched it.”
“What account?”
“Preston opened it six months ago.”
My hands began shaking.
“In my daughter’s name?”
“He needed someone with no business connection to Whitmore Holdings.”
I stared at him.
“Tell me how much.”
Ethan whispered the number.
“Four point six million dollars.”
My daughter wasn’t just Preston’s scapegoat at the wedding.
May you like
He had been preparing to make her the scapegoat for the missing money too.
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