Chapter 4 - the marriage that may have been arranged before emily knew it)
Emily stared at Robert.
"What do you mean?"
Daniel spoke immediately.
"Dad is making this sound insane."
Robert did not look at him.
"Your mother and I lost contact for several years. In 2008 she wrote to me again."
Emily searched her memory.
2008.
She had been twenty-one.
College.
Her mother had been working at a nonprofit foundation in Columbus.
Daniel had been finishing graduate school.
Robert continued.
"Clara wanted the original investment resolved. Margaret did not."
Margaret scoffed.
"Because there was nothing to resolve."
Robert ignored her.
"Clara threatened litigation. Then she stopped."
"Why?"
"I didn't know."
Emily looked toward Margaret.
"You did."
Margaret smiled.
"If I did, why would I tell you?"
Robert's face hardened.
"Because I found the payment."
Margaret's smile disappeared.
"What payment?" Emily asked.
Robert walked to the sideboard and removed another folder.
He placed a bank record in front of her.
A transfer.
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
From a Hartwell-controlled company.
To an account belonging to Clara Bennett.
Emily stared at the date.
Three days before Clara withdrew her legal complaint.
Margaret said, "There. Proof she was repaid."
Robert shook his head.
"Read the memo."
Emily looked.
CONSULTING SETTLEMENT.
Robert said, "It wasn't repayment for the property."
"How do you know?"
"Because the amount was less than one quarter of what Clara's original investment would have been worth by then."
Margaret crossed her arms.
"She accepted it."
Robert turned.
"Did she?"
Margaret didn't answer.
Emily said, "What does any of this have to do with Daniel meeting me?"
Robert looked at his son.
"Two years after that payment, Margaret discovered where you worked."
Emily's skin went cold.
She had been twenty-three then.
Junior analyst at a Boston investment firm.
She met Daniel at a charity gala.
He had approached her near the coat check after someone spilled champagne on her sleeve.
They talked for two hours.
He called the next morning.
She had always believed chance had given her the best night of her life.
Robert continued carefully.
"Daniel's company had no business at that gala."
Emily turned toward her husband.
"Why were you there?"
Daniel swallowed.
"It was a public event."
"Why were you there?"
"My mother mentioned you."
Margaret closed her eyes.
Emily almost laughed.
"Your mother mentioned me."
"Yes."
"Before we'd ever met."
"Yes."
"And you went there because of that?"
Daniel's voice cracked slightly.
"At first."
Emily's legs weakened.
Rachel pushed a chair toward her.
Emily did not sit.
"At first."
Daniel stepped closer.
"I didn't expect to like you."
Several relatives shifted uncomfortably.
Emily stared at him.
Daniel continued.
"My mother wanted to know what Clara had told you."
"So you dated me."
"It wasn't like that after the beginning."
"How long was the beginning?"
Daniel said nothing.
"One date?"
Nothing.
"A month?"
Nothing.
"A year?"
"Emily."
"A year?"
He looked away.
The wedding ring upstairs on the bathroom counter suddenly felt like an artifact belonging to someone else.
Emily asked, "When did you tell your mother I didn't know about the property?"
Daniel's silence became unbearable.
"Before or after you proposed?"
"Before."
Emily turned away.
Her vision blurred.
She refused to cry where Margaret could watch.
Daniel came closer.
"Emily, I fell in love with you."
"You investigated me."
"It wasn't an investigation."
"You approached me because your mother told you to."
"Then things changed."
"Did they?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you secretly film me tonight?"
Daniel had no answer.
Emily faced him again.
"Did you marry me because you loved me, or because marrying me kept me close enough that your family could control anything my mother might have left me?"
"That's not fair."
"Fair?"
She laughed.
"Your mother assaulted me during Christmas dinner while you filmed it."
Daniel looked around at the witnesses.
His confidence was collapsing.
Margaret stepped forward.
"Enough of this melodrama. Daniel made one foolish choice when he was young. Emily benefited from this marriage more than anyone."
Robert whispered, "Margaret."
"No. I am done pretending."
She pointed at Emily.
"She came into this family with nothing."
Emily stared at her.
Nothing.
Her mother's money may have helped buy the very floor Margaret stood on.
Yet Margaret still believed Emily had arrived empty-handed.
Margaret continued.
"She got our name. Our connections. This house. Vacations. Security. Everything."
Emily asked, "And what did Daniel get?"
Margaret smiled.
"A wife."
Emily looked at Daniel.
"No. What did he get?"
Nobody answered.
Emily picked up the unsigned property transfer agreement.
"This."
She held it up.
"He got access."
Daniel shook his head.
"That's not true."
"Then tell me who copied my signature."
Daniel looked at Margaret.
Again.
Always Margaret.
Emily followed his gaze.
Margaret's expression changed.
Robert saw it.
Claire saw it.
Rachel saw it.
Emily walked slowly toward her mother-in-law.
"You signed my name."
Margaret laughed.
"Don't be absurd."
"Did you?"
"No."
Emily looked at Daniel.
"Did she?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
That was answer enough.
Margaret turned on him.
"Don't you dare."
Robert said quietly, "Daniel."
Daniel opened his eyes.
He looked at Emily.
Then at his mother.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Daniel Hartwell appeared to understand that silence was also a choice.
"She prepared the papers."
Margaret slapped him.
The sound echoed almost as loudly as the slap she had given Emily.
Daniel staggered half a step.
Margaret stared at her own hand as if surprised.
Robert moved between them.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
Daniel touched his cheek.
Something changed in his face.
Not courage.
Not yet.
But perhaps recognition.
He looked at Emily.
"She told me the transfer would only protect the house during a separation."
Emily said, "And the forged signature?"
"I didn't know she had signed it."
Margaret shouted, "Liar."
Daniel turned toward her.
"You told me Emily had agreed."
"I said she would agree."
"No. You said she already had."
Margaret's chest rose and fell.
Suddenly the elegant woman at the center of every Hartwell Christmas photograph looked cornered.
Robert reached for the sealed envelope.
"Then let's find out what Clara actually agreed to."
He tore the edge.
Margaret rushed forward.
Robert pulled it away.
The envelope split.
A thick stack of certified documents slid partly onto the table.
Emily saw the first page.
COUNTY RECORDS ARCHIVE.
Behind it was another document marked TRUST AGREEMENT.
Then all the lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Someone screamed.
A chair crashed.
May you like
Emily heard footsteps.
Then the unmistakable sound of paper being snatched from the table.
