Chapter 8 - The Betrayal
I didn't believe it.
I couldn't.
Arthur had been my father's closest adviser.
He had held my hand at my father's funeral.
He had helped me raise Ellie after Grant started traveling constantly.
He had been the man I trusted with every financial decision.
But now Evelyn had given me a reason to doubt him.
So I tested him.
I told Arthur we were moving Bluebird documents to a secure location in Boston.
The documents were fake.
The location was fake.
The only person I told was Arthur.
Within hours, a private surveillance team appeared near the supposed location.
Someone had taken the bait.
We knew who.
I confronted Arthur that night.
He looked tired.
“You should not have tested me.”
“I had to.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By leaking our location?”
“I never gave Grant your daughter's location.”
“You gave someone the Boston location.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed to know who was receiving the information.”
I stared at him.
“And?”
“They came.”
“Who?”
Arthur placed a phone on the table.
A recording began.
Grant's voice.
Then Richard Vale.
Then another voice.
A voice I recognized immediately.
My uncle.
My father's older brother.
The man who had spent years telling me he wanted peace in the family.
I felt sick.
Arthur whispered,
“Your uncle has been working with Vale for years.”
I looked at the recording.
Then everything snapped into place.
The family empire had not been divided by money.
It had been divided by betrayal.
And Grant had married me because he had been promised a share.
Ellie had complicated the plan.
Bluebird had made her too powerful.
So they needed control.
Or they needed her gone.
I looked at Arthur.
“What do we do now?”
He answered without hesitation.
“We stop protecting ourselves.”
I stared at him.
May you like
“We expose all of them.”
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