Chapter 4 - The Proposal Nobody Trusted
By the fourth month, Eleanor and Travis had become inseparable.
They attended concerts, walked through old neighborhoods, and spent Sunday mornings at the unfinished library.
Travis never moved into her mansion. He never accepted access to her accounts. When Eleanor offered to invest in his architectural firm, he refused.
“I need you to know I would be here without the money,” he said.
“I do know.”
“Everyone else does not.”
“I stopped living for everyone else a long time ago.”
The proposal happened in the restored reading room.
There were no reporters, musicians, or expensive decorations. Only afternoon sunlight, the scent of new wood, and rows of repaired bookshelves.
Eleanor stood beneath the arch where they had first met.
“I have spent most of my life being useful to people,” she said. “Investors needed my name. Relatives needed my money. Employees needed decisions. I cannot remember the last time someone simply wanted my company.”
Travis took her hand.
“I do.”
“Then marry me.”
For once, Travis had no immediate answer.
Eleanor’s confidence faltered.
“I realize this is not traditional.”
“Nothing about us is traditional.”
“You can say no.”
He studied her face.
“Would you still finish the library?”
“Of course.”
“Would you still argue with me about the roof tiles?”
“Until one of us dies.”
Travis smiled.
“Then yes.”
The news spread before they told anyone.
Sebastian claimed a wedding planner had leaked the information, but Travis suspected the leak had come from Sebastian himself.
Within hours, cameras surrounded the mansion.
Television hosts debated whether Travis loved Eleanor. Financial reporters estimated what he might inherit. Strangers examined photographs of him and decided his expressions looked calculated.
Eleanor wanted to cancel the engagement announcement.
Travis refused.
“They want us ashamed,” he said.
“I have survived worse than gossip.”
“So have I.”
Sebastian offered to prepare a prenuptial agreement.
Travis signed it without negotiation.
The document stated that he would receive nothing from Eleanor if the marriage ended. He waived claims to her companies, investments, property, and trust income.
Sebastian appeared surprised.
“You should have your own attorney review this.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“My attorney said it was unusually aggressive.”
“Yet you signed.”
“I told Eleanor I did not want her money.”
Sebastian leaned back in his chair.
“Men say many things before a wedding.”
Travis closed the folder.
“And lawyers say many things when they are trying to create doubt.”
Sebastian’s expression cooled.
Two weeks later, Eleanor received an anonymous letter.
Ask your future husband why he was searching for E.H.
The letter included copies of Travis’s old requests to adoption agencies.
Eleanor confronted him gently.
He showed her the photograph.
“This is the woman I was trying to find.”
Eleanor studied it for only a few seconds before handing it back.
At the time, she did not recognize herself.
The photograph was more than three decades old. The woman’s face was partly hidden by light. Eleanor’s appearance had also changed after a serious car accident in her twenties required multiple surgeries.
Still, something about the image unsettled her.
“E.H.,” she whispered.
“Those are the initials on the back.”
“My initials.”
“I know.”
“Do you think I know her?”
“I thought you might.”
Eleanor stared at the baby.
A pressure formed behind her eyes. For one instant, she heard an infant crying and a man shouting in a hospital corridor.
Then the memory vanished.
“I am sorry,” she said. “I do not remember.”
Travis believed her.
May you like
From the hallway, Sebastian watched through the partially open door.
That night, he entered the mansion’s security room and deleted the recording of their conversation.
