Chapter 2 - THE FIRST WIFEI thought I had misunderstood.
“No?”
Daniel moved toward me.
“Claire.”
I held up one hand.
“Stay there.”
He stopped.
I looked again at Allison Reed Bennett’s marriage certificate.
“You were still married yesterday?”
Daniel dragged both hands through his hair.
“It isn’t that simple.”
“It actually sounds incredibly simple.”
“Claire—”
“Is Allison alive?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Daniel said nothing.
That silence was worse than an answer.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
My wedding ring suddenly felt too tight.
I pulled it off.
Daniel’s face changed.
“Please.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Liar.”
“I haven’t seen her in seven years.”
“But you’re legally married.”
“She disappeared.”
“And instead of getting divorced, you married me?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“I filed.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Where’s the judgment?”
Nothing.
I laughed.
I could hear hysteria entering my voice.
“I stood in front of two hundred people yesterday while you knowingly married me illegally.”
Margaret snapped:
“Lower your voice.”
I turned on her.
“No.”
She looked shocked.
For nearly three years, I had tolerated Margaret correcting my clothes, my dinner choices, my career, my friends, even the flowers at my own wedding.
Something inside me finally broke.
“You don’t get to tell me how loudly I react to discovering my marriage is fake.”
Daniel stepped between us.
“Enough.”
I looked at him.
“Don’t defend her.”
“I’m trying to stop this from becoming worse.”
“Worse?”
I held up the forged prenup.
“How?”
His phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Margaret went pale.
I saw the caller.
HAROLD FINCH.
The notary.
Daniel ignored it.
It rang again.
I grabbed my phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
Margaret moved quickly.
“Don’t.”
That told me I should.
“Why?”
“Because the second police enter this house, everything becomes public.”
“So?”
Daniel stared at me.
“Bennett Hospitality collapses.”
There it was.
Money.
The real emergency.
Not my humiliation.
Not my fake wedding.
The company.
I called my attorney instead.
Rachel Grant had handled my father’s estate.
When I told her what I had found, she became frighteningly quiet.
“Claire, photograph everything.”
I did.
“Send it to me.”
I sent twenty-three photographs.
Rachel said:
“Do not sign anything. Do not hand over your phone. Do not allow them access to your email.”
I froze.
“My phone?”
“Yes. Your father’s convertible note requires dual-factor authorization before transfer.”
I looked at Daniel.
He looked away.
My stomach dropped.
“They needed my phone.”
Rachel paused.
“What?”
I walked toward the nightstand.
My phone had been downstairs with me all night.
But my backup authentication device—
a small hardware key—
had been inside my bridal jewelry box.
I opened it.
Empty.
“Daniel.”
He knew immediately.
Margaret said:
“We only needed temporary access.”
I nearly laughed.
“You stole my authentication key?”
“To prevent a default.”
“You committed fraud.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“I was trying to save six thousand jobs!”
“By stealing my company rights?”
“It’s not your company!”
I stared at him.
He realized what he had said.
Rachel heard it through the phone.
“Claire,” she said, “leave the house.”
I picked up my purse.
Daniel blocked the doorway.
Not touching me.
Just standing there.
“Don’t do this.”
I looked directly into his eyes.
“You already did.”
Margaret suddenly said:
“If she leaves, Harold files.”
Daniel turned.
“Mom.”
Too late.
I stopped.
“Files what?”
Margaret looked furious with herself.
Daniel said nothing.
I waited.
“Files what?”
Finally Daniel answered.
“A competency petition.”
I felt cold.
“For whom?”
He looked at me.
“For you.”
For a moment I could not process the words.
“You planned to have me declared incompetent?”
“Temporarily.”
I laughed.
“Temporarily insane?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Emotionally impaired.”
“Because?”
“Stress.”
I stared.
“My father died nine months ago.”
Daniel nodded.
They planned to use my grief.
My therapy appointments.
My exhaustion.
My wedding stress.
To argue I could not manage the inherited note.
Rachel’s voice came through my phone.
“Claire, get out now.”
I stepped toward the door.
Daniel moved aside.
Maybe he finally realized he had lost me.
Then Margaret said quietly:
“You think Allison disappeared because she wanted to leave Daniel?”
I stopped.
Daniel’s expression changed.
“Mom.”
Margaret ignored him.
“She discovered the same thing you did.”
My skin prickled.
“What thing?”
Margaret looked at the forged document in my hand.
“The Bennetts tried to take something from her too.”
Daniel shouted:
“Stop!”
Margaret looked at her son.
For the first time, there was fear between them.
Not alliance.
Fear.
Then she turned back to me.
“Allison didn’t leave Daniel.”
May you like
A pause.
“She ran from us.”
