Chapter 10 - The Wife They Planned to Invent

The file described me as unstable.

Jealous.

Infertile.

Dependent.

Emotionally volatile.

It included photographs of broken glass after arguments.

None showed who broke it.

Audio began only after shouting had already started.

Texts showed me saying:

I can't do this anymore.

They removed the messages before it where Adrian threatened to leave me if I attended my father's birthday.

It was a narrative assembled from fragments.

Claire said:

"They weren't only preparing divorce leverage. They were preparing public relations."

If I accused Adrian of abuse, they would say the billionaire's spoiled daughter fabricated it to seize his company.

If I revealed my father, they would call the marriage a trap.

If I stayed silent, they would take assets and discard me quietly.

Every path had been planned.

Except one.

I called Dad before signing.

That single decision broke their timing.

Police found Marcus in New Jersey two days later.

He offered cooperation before the handcuffs were fully processed.

Marcus claimed Vanessa designed the exit plan.

Vanessa claimed Marcus did.

Both blamed Adrian for the abuse evidence.

Then Marcus produced an audio recording from six weeks earlier.

Adrian's voice:

Mia will never fight publicly. She hates scandal.

Vanessa:

And if she does?

Adrian:

Her father is nobody.

I stopped the recording.

Dad looked at me.

"Play it."

I did.

Marcus:

You're sure about her family?

Adrian laughed.

She has a retired teacher father somewhere in Europe. I checked years ago.

Dad actually smiled.

"What?" I asked.

"I taught one semester at Oxford."

I stared at him.

"You told people you were a retired teacher?"

"I told no one anything. Apparently someone found a visiting-faculty biography and stopped investigating."

For the first time in days, I laughed.

Then the audio continued.

Adrian:

Once Vanessa gives me an heir, Mia is finished.

The laughter left me.

Claire paused the file.

"Do you want to stop?"

"No."

The next line came from Marcus.

What if the pregnancy isn't yours?

Silence.

Then Adrian said:

It is.

Marcus answered:

You might want to verify that.

I looked at Claire.

She was already reading another report.

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