Chapter 5 - Garrett’s First Confession
Emily refused to let Garrett enter the house.
They met in the detached security building near the gate, separated by a reinforced glass partition.
Two federal investigators observed from an adjacent room. Claire sat beside Emily. Daniel remained at the main house with Margaret and Noah.
Garrett placed the stolen ledger on the metal table.
The bloodstained key rested beside it.
“You look tired,” Emily said.
Garrett gave her a bitter smile.
“My wife froze my accounts, removed me from my company, stole my house, and sent federal agents through my offices. I’ve had better evenings.”
“You kicked my mother to the floor.”
“You destroyed a corporation because of one chair.”
“No. I stopped protecting a man who believed he could do anything without consequences.”
Garrett leaned toward the glass.
“You enjoyed it.”
Emily did not answer.
Perhaps a small part of her had.
That frightened her less than it should have.
“Where is my father?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You told the camera you did.”
“I said I know where he is. I didn’t say I know how to reach him.”
Claire placed a recorder on the table.
“Start from the beginning.”
Garrett looked at her.
“Attorney Bennett, you’ve always wanted to see me ruined.”
“I wanted Emily to stop pretending you could be repaired.”
He ignored the comment.
“My father told me about Thomas Reed two weeks before he died. He said Reed had built the system that made our family wealthy, then tried to steal it.”
Emily placed the photograph against the glass.
“Thomas built it. Richard Lawson stole it.”
“That depends on which dead man’s story you believe.”
“Jonathan knew about the trust?”
“He knew there was a claim against the company. He didn’t know who controlled it until Emily began purchasing Lawson debt.”
Garrett had learned the truth during his engagement to Emily.
Jonathan ordered him to end the relationship.
Garrett refused.
“Why?” Emily asked.
“Because I loved you.”
Claire made a quiet sound of disbelief.
Garrett’s eyes remained on Emily.
“At first, I thought marrying you would merge the claim back into the Lawson family. My father encouraged it after speaking with Victoria.”
“So our marriage was a transaction.”
“It became more than that.”
“You forged a marital waiver.”
“My mother handled the documents.”
“You signed them.”
Garrett looked away.
Emily felt something inside her finally separate from him.
Not break.
That had happened slowly over years.
This was cleaner.
A door closing.
“What was the deal?” she asked.
Garrett hesitated.
“If I married you and produced an heir, Senator Vale agreed to certify an old federal settlement that would permanently eliminate the Reed claim.”
Emily’s stomach turned.
Noah.
“The child holds the claim,” she whispered.
Garrett glanced at the photograph.
“Where did you get that?”
“Answer me.”
“The trust passes through direct descendants. If you died without a child, control would revert to an independent foundation. But if you had a child within the Lawson family, the competing lines could be legally merged.”
“You married me to obtain my inheritance.”
“No.”
Garrett’s voice rose.
“I married you because I wanted you. The inheritance was part of it, but it wasn’t everything.”
“That does not make it better.”
“It should.”
Emily stared at the man she had once defended to friends, employees, and herself.
“Why did your message say my mother wasn’t part of the deal?”
“I didn’t send that message.”
“It came to your phone.”
“I received it.”
“From whom?”
Garrett tapped the ledger.
“The person who stole this.”
“You stole it from Daniel’s office.”
“No. A man delivered it to my hotel after I left the ballroom. He told me to bring it here.”
“Why?”
“He said Emily would need the key.”
Claire looked at the bloodstained object.
“What does it open?”
“A deposit box at Union Continental Bank.”
“Whose blood is on it?”
Garrett’s jaw tightened.
“The man who gave it to me.”
“What happened to him?”
“He collapsed in the hotel elevator. Someone had stabbed him before he reached me.”
Emily studied Garrett’s expression.
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
“I did. Then the body disappeared before they arrived.”
One of the federal investigators entered through a side door.
“We confirmed a blood trace in the elevator and signs that security footage was altered.”
Garrett leaned back.
“Now do you believe me?”
“No,” Emily said. “But I believe someone used you.”
His face hardened.
Claire opened the ledger.
Several pages had been removed from the sealed appendix.
“What was taken?” Emily asked.
Garrett shook his head.
“It was like that when I received it.”
The final remaining page contained a bank number written in Thomas Reed’s handwriting.
Below it was a date.
The date of Emily’s birth.
And a second date thirty-three years later.
Tomorrow.
“What happens tomorrow?” Claire asked.
Garrett gave a humorless laugh.
“That is why I came here.”
He slid a folded note beneath the partition through the document slot.
Emily opened it.
At midnight tomorrow, Union Continental Bank would automatically open a dormant trust account unless a direct heir appeared in person to stop the process.
If the account opened, its contents would be released to a recipient identified only as Guardian R.
Emily looked at Garrett.
“Senator Robert Vale.”
“Maybe.”
“What’s inside the account?”
Garrett’s gaze moved toward the main house, where his son was sleeping.
“My father said it contained enough evidence to destroy everyone connected to the Lawson empire.”
“Then why stop it from opening?”
“Because the account doesn’t only contain evidence.”
May you like
Garrett’s voice dropped.
“It contains a list of every person Thomas Reed agreed could be sacrificed to protect you.”
