We left my sister's office together.
Neither of us trusted the empty hallway.
David locked the door behind us.
I kept the letter inside my coat.
The notebook stayed with me too.
The missing payment records bothered me more than anything else.
Whoever had taken them knew exactly what mattered.
That meant the person wasn't searching randomly.
They knew the story.
Perhaps better than I did.
Outside, David stopped beside my car.
“I should tell you everything.”
I looked at him.
“You should have done that three years ago.”
“I know.”
“Start with Daniel.”
He nodded.
“Daniel owned part of the company I worked for.”
“Your company.”
“Yes.”
“And he wanted my property.”
“He believed your family would eventually sell.”
“We weren't selling.”
“He knew that.”
“Then why involve me?”
“Because your sister controlled the final decision.”
I thought about the estate.
She had been protecting it.
And after her death, control had shifted to me.
David looked at the ground.
“When she died, Daniel realized you were the one standing between him and the property.”
“So you came to me.”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“Even after you fell in love with me?”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt.
“But you stopped working for him.”
“I tried.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn't keep pretending.”
“Pretending what?”
“That you were just a woman with a house.”
I looked away.
David continued.
“You became Clara.”
I said nothing.
“You became Harry's mother. The person who knew when Selena was upset without asking. The person who kept Mika's school projects on the refrigerator. You became the family I didn't know I wanted.”
“That doesn't excuse what you did.”
“No.”
He didn't argue.
“I stayed because I loved you. But I was never completely free of Daniel.”
“Why not?”
“He had information about me.”
“What information?”
David looked at me.
“My financial records.”
“That isn't enough to control you.”
“He had proof I had worked for him.”
I frowned.
“Doing what?”
“Research.”
“For the property?”
“Yes.”
“Anything illegal?”
He hesitated.
“I don't know how to answer that without making it sound worse.”
“Try.”
“I obtained information I shouldn't have had.”
I closed my eyes.
At least he was finally speaking plainly.
“What did you obtain?”
“Estate records.”
“Mine?”
“Your sister's.”
The betrayal was complete.
Even if he had later fallen in love with me, he had entered my life through deception.
I turned away.
“I need you to leave.”
“Clara—”
“Leave.”
He nodded.
Before walking away, he said, “There's one thing you should know.”
I looked at him.
“Daniel isn't the person you should be worried about.”
“Then who?”
“Your sister's estate wasn't the only thing he wanted.”
He paused.
“He wanted access to the children's trust.”
I felt sick.
“Why?”
“Because it contains property interests.”
I thought about the documents David had wanted me to sign.
He had been trying to bring everything together.
Not just my house.
The children's future.
I looked at him.
“Did your mother know?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know about the children?”
“Yes.”
I felt anger rise.
“Then why did she sit at my wedding?”
David looked ashamed.
“She thought the plan was already finished.”
“Because she thought I'd sign.”
“Yes.”
“And you?”
He looked at me.
“I thought you might.”
That sentence ended whatever remained between us.
He walked away.
I watched him disappear down the street.
Then I called Helen.
She answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“I need you to check the children's trust.”
“Why?”
“I think it was part of the plan.”
There was a pause.
“Come to my office.”
I drove there.
By the time I arrived, Helen had already pulled the trust documents.
She read them carefully.
Then she looked at me.
“There is something unusual.”
“What?”
“A clause was reviewed eighteen months ago.”
“Who requested the review?”
She showed me the record.
The request came from an outside adviser.
Daniel Price.
I sat down.
“Can he access anything?”
“No.”
“Then why review it?”
“To understand the structure.”
I laughed bitterly.
“So they were studying us.”
“Yes.”
I looked at the notebook.
My sister had known.
She had been investigating them.
She had tried to protect me.
And somehow, David had still become part of our lives.
Then I remembered something.
“Harry said David asked about his money.”
Helen looked up.
“What money?”
“The trust.”
She went still.
“When did he ask?”
“A few months ago.”
Helen opened the records.
“If David was trying to determine whether the trust was protected, that could explain the questions.”
I stared at the documents.
“What happens if I had signed the papers he gave me?”
“We need to analyze the exact documents, but you could have changed control over assets that were intended to remain protected.”
“Could the children have lost them?”
“Not automatically.”
“But someone could have gained influence.”
“Yes.”
I looked down.
The wedding had been designed to make me emotional.
To make me trust.
To make me feel that refusing paperwork would somehow mean I didn't trust my future husband.
It had almost worked.
Then my phone buzzed.
Another message.
Check the wedding contract.
I looked at Helen.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“Don't answer.”
I opened the message.
The sender had attached a photograph.
It showed the document Marissa had given Helen earlier.
The billing agreement.
But there was something I had not noticed.
A second signature.
Not mine.
Not David's.
Margaret's.
I stared.
“She signed this?”
Helen took the phone.
She enlarged the image.
“This is strange.”
“What?”
“The document was altered.”
“How?”
“Look at the date.”
I did.
The date was from two months earlier.
But the change to the billing arrangement had been made yesterday.
Helen frowned.
“That means someone had access to the contract before you requested the change.”
“Who?”
“We need the original.”
I called Marissa.
She answered quickly.
“Clara?”
“Do you still have the original wedding contract?”
“Yes.”
“Don't give it to anyone.”
A pause.
“Why?”
“Because I think someone altered a copy.”
Marissa went silent.
Then she said something that made my blood run cold.
“Clara, David asked for a copy of that contract three weeks ago.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why?”
“He said he needed it for the venue.”
“He wasn't dealing with the venue.”
“I know that now.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Helen.
The pieces were shifting again.
David had accessed the contract.
Margaret had signed something.
Someone had altered a copy.
The wedding had not simply been a ceremony.
It had been a carefully arranged financial event.
And someone had planned around it.
That evening, I returned home.
The house was dark.
I turned on the kitchen light.
A white envelope sat on the counter.
I had not left it there.
I stopped.
The envelope had no name.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
I read it once.
Then again.
It contained only four words.
Your sister trusted the wrong person.
At the bottom was a name.
Patricia.
I stared at it.
Patricia had been the one who told me about the locked drawer.
She had known about the photograph.
She had known my sister suspected David.
Now someone was using her name.
I called her.
No answer.
I called again.
Still nothing.
Then my phone rang.
It was Patricia.
I answered.
“Where are you?”
Her breathing sounded uneven.
“Clara, don't trust anyone.”
“Patricia, what happened?”
“I found something in your sister's old records.”
“What?”
“I can't talk here.”
“Where are you?”
She whispered an address.
Then the call ended.
I grabbed my keys.
Before I could leave, another message appeared.
Don't go alone.
I stopped at the door.
For the first time that night, I realized I was no longer investigating what David had done.
I was trying to understand how many people had been involved before I ever knew there was a plan.
Click here to continue reading: PART 9: Patricia’s Warning Led Me to the Missing Records, but the Truth Inside Them Forced Me to Face the One Person I Had Not Yet Suspected
The Call That Was Never Supposed to Stay Open Revealed What My Fiancé Planned to Do After We Said Our Vows
Part 8 of 10
