Chapter 4 - I Discovered My Mother Had Been Stealing From My Company, but She Wasn't the Real EnemyThe missing money was only the beginning.
My mother had diverted funds.
But someone else had authorized the transfers.
A man named Adrian Cole.
My father's former attorney.
He had stayed with the company after my father died.
He had access to trusts.
Contracts.
Legal documents.
Everything.
Clare found something before I did.
A hidden account.
It contained payments to several board members.
Adrian had been buying influence.
My mother was part of it.
But she wasn't the mastermind.
She was being blackmailed.
We confronted her.
She broke.
“Your father wasn't murdered.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He disappeared.”
“Why?”
“He discovered Adrian was stealing.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“He knew Adrian would eventually come after you.”
She looked at me.
“Then the boys were born.”
She shook her head.
“Your father wanted them protected.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“But you said he disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Who helped him?”
She looked at Clare.
“You.”
Clare froze.
“What?”
“You met your father before you left Damen.”
I looked at Clare.
“Is that true?”
She swallowed.
“Yes.”
“You knew where he was?”
“No.”
“But you met him.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Before the boys were born.
My father had approached Clare privately.
He told her to leave me if I became like him.
He gave her documents.
He told her the boys needed distance from the Mercer family.
Clare had followed his instructions.
I didn't know whether to feel betrayed or grateful.
My father had protected my children.
Clare had trusted him.
And I had been the only person who didn't know.
That night, I asked Clare:
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because he asked me not to.”
“He was my father.”
“I know.”
“You should have told me.”
“I thought he would come back.”
“And when he didn't?”
“I tried.”
She looked at me.
“I thought you were safer without knowing.”
I sat down.
Everyone had been making decisions for me.
My father.
My mother.
Clare.
And now I understood why.
They had all seen something I couldn't.
My obsession with power.
The way I treated people.
The way I believed I could fix everything with money.
I hated them for being right.
Adrian was exposed.
He had been stealing for years.
He had manipulated my mother.
He had hidden my father's location.
He had even tried to redirect the boys' trust into shell companies.
We called investigators.
The board turned on him.
He disappeared.
We found him two weeks later.
He had tried to flee.
He was arrested.
The company survived.
But my family was shattered.
My father was still missing.
I didn't know whether he was alive.
Clare and I stood outside the hospital one night.
The boys were asleep.
“You should hate me,” she said.
“I don't.”
“You have every reason.”
“I have reasons to be angry.”
She looked at me.
“What's the difference?”
“Hate means I want to hurt you.”
“And?”
“I don't.”
She smiled faintly.
“I never stopped loving you.”
My heart stopped.
She looked away.
“But love isn't enough.”
“No.”
“I know.”
“I wish it had been.”
She closed her eyes.
“So do I.”
The boys woke.
We went inside.
They ran toward us.
For a moment, everything else disappeared.
I looked at Clare.
Maybe there was something left.
Not the old marriage.
Something new.
Something built on truth.
I didn't ask her to come back.
I just stayed.
May you like
Day after day.
That was the only apology that mattered.
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