Chapter 5 - Before Bianca Became His Wife
Nathan had believed he met Bianca Laurent by chance.
Three years earlier, she had appeared at a charity auction in Aspen wearing a white dress and laughing beside a sculpture nobody understood.
Grant introduced them.
“Bianca designed the new suites at Summit Crest,” he had said.
Nathan remembered Bianca looking embarrassed.
“Grant exaggerates. I chose furniture and argued about lamps.”
Nathan had smiled for the first time in months.
Amelia had been dead eleven months.
He had not planned to date.
Bianca had been patient.
Thoughtful.
She never pushed herself into Lily’s life too quickly.
At least that was how Nathan remembered it.
Now Amelia’s records showed Bianca’s company had received money from Grant’s secret Ridgewell-linked LLC six months before that “chance” meeting.
Detective Ruiz examined the documents.
“This does not prove Bianca was introduced to you as part of a plan.”
Nathan’s voice hardened.
“What would?”
“Emails. Messages. Witness testimony.”
“Everything needs ten witnesses and a notarized confession with you.”
Ruiz didn’t react.
“That attitude is what got Jake punched.”
Nathan shut his mouth.
She was right.
Again.
Financial investigators subpoenaed Crescent Peak’s records.
Grant’s attorneys resisted.
Meanwhile Bianca launched her counterattack.
Her lawyer, celebrity divorce attorney Malcolm Voss, held a press conference.
“My client categorically denies any attempt to harm Lily Hayes.”
Cameras clicked.
“The video shows a chaotic recreational environment. Mrs. Hayes attempted to prevent Lily from entering the channel improperly and lost her balance.”
Nathan watched from Catherine’s living room.
Lily sat upstairs.
Voss continued.
“Mr. Nathan Hayes, meanwhile, was captured violently assaulting a resort employee.”
Nathan’s own punches appeared on-screen.
One.
Two.
Jake falling.
Nathan looked away.
Then Voss revealed the next weapon.
“Mrs. Hayes has also endured years of controlling behavior within her marriage.”
Nathan laughed once.
Catherine did not.
“This isn’t funny.”
“I never controlled Bianca.”
“Maybe not.”
Nathan looked at her.
Catherine continued, “But nobody is going to automatically believe the rich husband.”
Voss announced Bianca had filed for divorce.
She sought enforcement of a postnuptial agreement signed eleven months earlier.
Nathan frowned.
“What postnup?”
His lawyer David looked equally confused.
Nathan had signed several estate-planning updates after marriage.
But no postnuptial agreement.
Voss held up a document.
Under its terms, Bianca would receive twenty percent of Nathan’s net proceeds from any sale of HLG completed during the marriage.
Nathan stood.
“That’s forged.”
David said, “Sit.”
“I never signed that.”
“Then we prove it.”
The signature looked real.
Not merely similar.
Real.
Nathan’s mind raced.
Eleven months earlier he had signed a stack of refinancing and estate documents at Grant’s office.
Bianca had brought champagne.
Grant had joked about Nathan finally becoming an adult.
Had a postnup been buried inside?
David requested the original.
Bianca’s lawyers produced it that afternoon.
Nathan’s signature appeared in blue ink.
So did a notarization.
Nathan stared.
“I didn’t know what this was.”
David’s expression tightened.
“That is not the same as saying you didn’t sign.”
Nathan looked at him.
“If you signed without reading, courts do not generally rescue sophisticated business owners from contracts simply because they didn’t read them.”
Nathan felt fury rising.
“I was deceived.”
“Then we prove fraud.”
The postnup transformed Bianca’s financial motive.
If Ridgewell purchased HLG for $480 million, Nathan’s personal share of proceeds could exceed $240 million before taxes and adjustments.
Bianca claimed twenty percent.
Tens of millions.
And if Lily died first, Nathan would receive the trust shares too.
His share of sale proceeds would become vastly larger.
So would Bianca’s contractual percentage.
Rebecca calculated it.
“If Lily had died and the sale closed at the current offer, Bianca’s claimed payout could exceed seventy million.”
The room went silent.
Catherine whispered, “Seventy million dollars.”
Nathan stared at the forged—or deceptively executed—postnup.
Ruiz said, “Now we have potential motive.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Potential?”
“Yes.”
He almost exploded.
Then stopped himself.
“Fine.”
Ruiz nodded slightly.
Progress.
That evening Jake called.
Nathan hesitated before answering.
“Jake.”
“I remembered something.”
“What?”
“The first day Bianca asked about the rapids, she wasn’t alone with Grant.”
Nathan’s pulse accelerated.
“Who else?”
“A man from Ridgewell.”
“Name?”
“Evan Cross. I recognized him from the resort executive retreat.”
Nathan knew Evan.
Ridgewell’s managing director.
“What were they doing?”
“Standing near the emergency-control panel.”
Nathan’s throat tightened.
“What did you hear?”
Jake paused.
“Bianca asked whether the flow could be increased manually.”
Nathan stood.
“And?”
“I told her only maintenance supervisors had access.”
“Did Grant have access?”
“Yes.”
Nathan’s chest went cold.
“Could the water have been moving faster when Lily was pushed?”
Jake was silent for a moment.
“It felt faster.”
Nathan gripped the phone.
“How much faster?”
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Jake’s next words came slowly.
“But someone changed the flow setting seventeen minutes before Lily went in.”
