Chapter 6 - A THIRD WOMAN'S NAME
Natalie Brooks had vanished six years earlier.
At least, that was how it first appeared.
Her business had closed, her social accounts were dormant, and her old apartment belonged to someone else.
Daniel was cautious about calling her missing.
“People change names, move away, and choose privacy,” he reminded us.
“But there's an unusual pattern.”
Her last company filing listed a transfer of consulting contracts to a firm later purchased by GLW Family Holdings.
My stomach tightened.
Another consultant.
Another woman with valuable assets.
Another name on Gloria's list.
Rebecca located Natalie's former business partner, Priya Desai.
Priya agreed to meet us only after confirming that we were not representing Gloria.
She arrived carrying a canvas messenger bag and a look of disciplined fury.
“Natalie didn't disappear,” she said.
“She left the country after someone threatened her family.”
She had no recent address and did not intend to reveal one if she found it.
I understood.
Priya told us that Natalie had nearly married a man introduced to her by a charity board member.
He had proposed aggressively, insisted on combining finances, and turned vicious when she requested a separate property agreement.
“Was the man's name Trent?” I asked.
“No.”
She slid a photograph across the table.
It showed Walter Lawson standing beside a handsome man I did not recognize.
“That man called himself Adrian Cole.”
A second photograph showed Adrian at a fundraiser beside Gloria.
She looked almost maternal with her hand on his arm.
Priya believed Adrian was one of several people used to win the confidence of wealthy women.
Rebecca refused to label it an organized fraud network without documentary proof, but the pattern was growing impossible to ignore.
When I returned to the guesthouse, a large bouquet stood beside the door.
White roses.
The exact flowers Trent had sent after my first miscarriage scare during fertility treatment.
A note was tucked between the stems.
You were never the only one.
I called Rebecca instead of touching the arrangement.
Security photographed it and checked the delivery information.
The florist confirmed an online order paid through a prepaid card.
No sender.
The following morning, Gloria appeared on a local television program discussing elder financial exploitation.
She wore pearls and a pale pink jacket.
“My family is being punished because my daughter-in-law is wealthy and vindictive,” she said.
She described the halted transfers as medical support taken from vulnerable seniors.
She carefully omitted the investment properties.
Trent sat beside her holding Brooke's hand.
The presenter asked whether I had responded to their allegations.
Gloria sighed theatrically.
“Harper has always struggled with rejection.”
The segment went viral among people who knew nothing about us.
My company's reception line filled with angry calls.
Then our biggest client asked for an emergency meeting.
They had received documents alleging that I had used corporate funds to pay for an unrelated family's expenses.
Some of that was true.
May you like
And for the first time I understood that Gloria was preparing to turn my generosity into evidence against me.
