Chapter 4 - The Man Melissa Chose
Melissa's fiancé was named Grant Holloway.
I had met him only twice.
He wore expensive watches, spoke constantly about investment opportunities, and once referred to Ethan's steady job as "playing small."
Daniel's investigator found that Grant owned a struggling property-development company with overdue loans.
A creditor had filed a civil collection action the previous month.
A lender had also recorded a lien against a warehouse project.
None of that made Grant a criminal.
It did explain why my settlement looked like a rescue rope.
Daniel invited me to his office to review a timeline.
"We have to separate what we know from what we suspect," he warned.
He pointed to the forged authorization.
The metadata showed that the file had been created on Grant's office computer the day before the article appeared.
"How did he know the amount?"
"A filing in the civil settlement process may have exposed information to someone monitoring the case. Or someone leaked it. We haven't established which."
My stomach tightened.
"And my father?"
"The letter presents him as your agent. That doesn't prove he wrote it."
On the screen was a message Grant had sent a business associate.
A court filing attached to the debt dispute quoted it.
"Once Claire's payout clears, we can solve the liquidity issue."
My name in his business calculations made my skin crawl.
That evening Melissa called from an unknown number.
I answered before realizing who it was.
"Finally," she snapped.
I almost ended the call.
"What do you want?"
"I want to understand why you're trying to ruin my marriage before it starts."
"I haven't spoken to your fiancé."
"Your lawyer is asking questions about him."
"He submitted paperwork using my name."
A sharp silence followed.
"He said Dad was handling it."
Her words came too quickly.
"Handling what?"
"Our family arrangements."
I looked at Ethan's photograph on the bookshelf.
"There are no family arrangements, Melissa."
"You have almost nineteen million dollars."
"I buried three people."
"You always do that."
I blinked.
"Do what?"
"Make everyone feel guilty when they ask you for something."
A strange calm settled over me.
"You skipped my children's funeral for cake."
"It wasn't about cake!"
"Then tell me what it was about."
Melissa breathed into the phone.
"Dad said if we went, everyone would spend the whole night talking about you."
I waited, sure I had misheard.
"The funeral wasn't at night."
"You know what I mean."
I did.
She had been protecting her spotlight.
I ended the call.
Two minutes later a message arrived from Grant.
"Keep your lawyer away from my business or this gets ugly."
I forwarded it to Daniel.
He replied with six words.
"Do not respond. Preserve everything."
Then another message arrived.
This time from my father.
"We have medical evidence you are not thinking clearly."
The threat was no longer about a wedding.
May you like
They were preparing to take my choices away.
