Chapter 8: Beneath Blackwood
Blackwood Estate had belonged to the Carter family for nearly a century.
The wedding ballroom was only one part of the property. Behind the gardens stood forests, abandoned stables, and nearly two thousand acres of protected land.
Emily had grown up hearing that her father refused to sell because her mother loved the estate.
Richard Brooks claimed there was another reason.
Thirty years earlier, geological surveys had discovered a massive lithium deposit beneath the northern section of the property.
At the time, extraction had been too expensive.
New technology had changed that.
The mineral rights could now be worth billions.
The Carter Trust owned the land.
But an old partnership agreement granted Brooks Development the right to negotiate extraction permits if a Carter and a Brooks became legally married.
Emily turned to Arthur.
“You knew?”
Arthur said nothing.
“You knew Daniel would gain access to the mineral rights?”
“I knew there was an old agreement.”
“And you let this wedding continue?”
“I believed the Blackwood clause would protect you.”
“You believed a clause was more reliable than telling me the truth?”
Arthur’s silence wounded her more than she expected.
He had advised her since her father’s death. He had approved every major decision of the trust. She had trusted him as family.
Now she understood that everyone around her had been deciding what she deserved to know.
Daniel used the moment.
“Arthur has been controlling you for years.”
“Do not speak,” Emily said.
“He arranged the trust. He selected your board. He decides which information reaches you.”
Arthur looked at Daniel.
“Careful.”
“Why? Are you afraid she’ll finally learn whose signature authorized the first Brooks loan?”
Emily turned toward Arthur.
“Whose signature?”
Arthur closed his eyes briefly.
“Mine.”
The first loan had been issued six years earlier, before Emily assumed control.
Arthur had approved fifty million dollars in financing to Brooks Hospitality.
When the company began failing, he authorized more.
He had hidden the true risk from Emily because admitting the mistake would have ended his career and damaged her father’s legacy.
Daniel’s relationship with Emily had begun soon afterward.
Now she could not tell where the courtship ended and the financial rescue began.
“You brought him into my life,” Emily said.
Arthur’s voice broke.
“I introduced you at a charity dinner. I did not know what he would become.”
“But when you suspected, you still said nothing.”
“I was trying to gather proof.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
Arthur did not deny it.
Emily looked around the library.
Her fiancé had betrayed her.
Her future father-in-law had conspired against her.
Vanessa had helped them.
And the man she trusted most had built the road that led them all to her.
Emily removed her engagement ring.
She placed it in the center of the table.
“The wedding is over.”
Daniel stared at the ring.
Emily looked at Arthur.
“And after tonight, so is your position at the Carter Trust.”
May you like
Before Arthur could respond, smoke began pouring beneath the library doors.
Someone had set fire to the estate archives.
