Chapter 5 - The Marriage Before the Marriage
Genevieve sat on the storage-unit floor.
“No.”
Sarah said nothing.
“That can’t be Julian.”
“It is.”
“My father died seventeen years ago.”
Sarah turned over the photograph.
The date was eleven years earlier.
“So Thomas didn’t take this.”
Genevieve looked up.
“Then who wrote on it?”
The handwriting resembled Thomas’s but was not identical.
Arthur recognized it.
“Rebecca.”
Genevieve’s mother.
That created another problem.
Rebecca had died with Thomas.
Seventeen years earlier.
The photograph therefore could not have been dated correctly.
Sarah examined the ink.
“Maybe the date was added later.”
They searched the remaining boxes.
The chronology became clearer.
Thomas began investigating Malcolm eighteen years ago.
Rebecca continued organizing materials.
Some later documents had been added by an unknown person.
One envelope contained photographs of Julian from eleven years ago, nine years ago, and seven years ago.
Someone had continued Thomas’s investigation after his death.
“Who had access?” Sarah asked.
Arthur whispered, “I don’t know.”
Then they found a payment receipt.
Private investigator:
Daniel Cross.
Sarah located him.
Cross was sixty-two and retired in Delaware.
He agreed to speak after Sarah mentioned Thomas Bellamy.
“I wondered when Genevieve would find those boxes.”
Genevieve gripped the phone.
“You put the photographs there?”
“Yes.”
“Who hired you?”
“Your grandfather.”
Genevieve turned toward Arthur.
Arthur looked genuinely stunned.
“Not me.”
Cross clarified.
“Your other grandfather.”
Rebecca’s father.
Samuel Grant.
Genevieve barely remembered him.
Samuel died eight years ago.
Before his death, he had continued Thomas’s investigation because he never accepted the boating accident as simple misfortune.
Cross had followed Malcolm.
That was how Julian appeared.
“What was Julian doing?”
“Running errands for Pierce.”
“What kind?”
“Corporate intelligence. Introductions. Quiet negotiations.”
“Did Malcolm send him to me?”
Cross paused.
“I can’t prove it.”
Genevieve’s stomach tightened.
“How did Julian and I meet?”
“At a charity auction.”
“Yes.”
“Who organized your invitation?”
Genevieve remembered.
Malcolm.
She felt physically cold.
Her marriage might have been engineered.
Julian called that evening.
She almost ignored him.
Then answered.
“Did Malcolm send you to meet me?”
Silence.
“Julian.”
“No.”
“Did you know him before me?”
“Yes.”
The admission was immediate.
Genevieve closed her eyes.
“For how long?”
“Three years.”
“Why did you lie?”
“Because I knew what you’d think.”
“What should I think?”
“That our marriage was fake.”
“Was it?”
Julian breathed slowly.
“No.”
“Did Malcolm tell you to approach me?”
Another silence.
Genevieve’s voice broke.
“Was it?”
“At first.”
Everything inside her went still.
Clara slept nearby.
Genevieve stared at her daughter.
“At first?”
“Genevieve, listen.”
“No.”
“I fell in love with you.”
“You targeted me.”
“I was supposed to introduce myself. That was all.”
“For what purpose?”
“To learn what Arthur planned for your voting shares.”
She covered her mouth.
Julian continued desperately.
“I stopped reporting to Malcolm after we got engaged.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“He helped with investments.”
“NorthStar.”
“Yes.”
Genevieve began crying.
“You married me knowing Malcolm wanted my family’s company.”
“I married you because I loved you.”
“And tonight in the hospital?”
Julian said nothing.
She whispered:
“You tried to steal our daughter.”
“No. I was trying to force you to sign.”
As if that were better.
Genevieve ended the call.
Sarah had recorded it with Genevieve’s consent.
It strengthened the coercion case.
But Genevieve felt no victory.
Her marriage had begun as surveillance.
Her husband had become exactly what her father feared.
Then Sarah found something in Thomas’s storage files that changed the financial stakes.
A side agreement from eighteen years earlier.
Malcolm Pierce had secretly acquired an economic interest in NorthStar’s predecessor company.
If Bellamy Medical Systems were sold to NorthStar, Malcolm stood to receive a massive contingent payout.
Estimated current value:
$34 million.
Arthur stared at the document.
“He’s been steering this deal for decades.”
Sarah nodded.
“And Julian may have been his access point to Genevieve.”
Genevieve looked at Clara.
“Then Julian wasn’t the architect.”
“No.”
May you like
Sarah closed the folder.
“He was an investment.”
