Chapter 13 - The Shadow Husband
My mind raced into complete overdrive. Mark?
Mark had been married to Lauren for four years. Six years ago, none of us even knew who Mark was—or so I thought.
“Mark didn’t just appear in Lauren’s life by accident,” Daniel explained, his chest heaving. “Mark was an auditor for your mother’s real estate firm years ago. He found out Eleanor was laundering money through shell companies. Instead of turning her in, he blackmailed her. He forced her to orchestrate his introduction to Lauren.”
“Why would Mark want to marry Lauren?” I asked, completely bewildered.
“Because Mark wanted access to your father’s estate!” Daniel yelled. “Your dad’s family owned thirty percent of the coastal development land in the county! Mark planned the whole thing. He used Lauren’s vanity to push her into spending money, drove her into debt, and then used her desperate financial moves to trigger the total collapse of your family!”
The nightmare wasn't just a petty sister trying to steal my husband. It was a calculated, multi-year hostile takeover of my entire family’s wealth—and Lauren had been Mark’s useful idiot the entire time.
Before I could digest the horrifying reality, my phone buzzed in my coat pocket.
May you like
It was a text from an unknown number. Attached was an image of my father’s quiet coastal cottage.
The text read: “Tell Daniel to hand over the original audit files, or your father’s cottage goes up in flames tonight.”
