PART 3 — THE FILE SELINA BROUGHT INTO MY HUSBAND’S COMPANY
I stared at the photograph Rachel had sent me.
Selina Cole stood outside Vance Global headquarters with a black leather folder pressed against her chest.
Beside her was Daniel Price, Flynn’s chief financial officer.
Daniel had worked for Flynn’s father for twenty-six years.
He was not the kind of man who met someone outside a corporate headquarters by accident.
I zoomed in on the photograph.
The folder had a small silver label.
PROJECT NORTHSTAR.
I had heard that name before.
Six months earlier, Flynn had mentioned it during dinner.
He had been drinking.
Not enough to become drunk, but enough to become careless.
“Northstar closes everything,” he’d said.
I had asked what that meant.
He smiled.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
Now I understood why he hadn’t wanted me asking questions.
Rachel called.
“Mabel, don’t touch anything else.”
“I won’t.”
“There’s more.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Daniel Price has been moving money between three Vance Global subsidiaries.”
“How much?”
“Approximately forty-seven million dollars.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Forty-seven million?”
“Yes.”
“And Selina?”
“We don’t know her exact role yet.”
I looked toward the hospital door.
“Flynn knows.”
Rachel was silent.
Then she said, “I think Flynn knows more than he has admitted.”
That evening, Flynn came back.
He sat beside my bed.
“You look better.”
I smiled faintly.
“I feel better.”
He reached for my hand.
“I’ve been thinking about everything.”
I looked at him.
“Have you?”
“Yes.”
His eyes were red.
“I almost lost you.”
I nearly laughed.
He had almost killed me.
And now he was afraid of losing me.
But I kept my face calm.
“I need to ask you something.”
“Anything.”
“What is Project Northstar?”
His hand stopped moving.
Only for a second.
But I noticed.
“Why are you asking?”
“I heard the name before.”
“It’s a company project.”
“What kind?”
“Investment restructuring.”
“Does Selina know about it?”
His face hardened.
“Why would you mention her?”
“I saw her outside your headquarters.”
Flynn stood.
“What photograph?”
I knew then.
He didn’t know Rachel had sent it.
“I didn’t say there was a photograph.”
Silence.
His eyes narrowed.
I smiled.
“I must be imagining things.”
Flynn slowly sat back down.
“You’re still recovering.”
“I know.”
He leaned toward me.
“Mabel, I want you to come home.”
The words sounded almost tender.
But Rachel’s warning echoed in my mind.
Don’t trust him.
I touched my wedding ring.
“I don’t think I’m ready.”
“You’re my wife.”
“And I’m also the woman you stabbed.”
His expression collapsed.
“I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“You knew enough to protect Selina.”
He looked away.
That was when his phone vibrated.
He checked it.
A message from Selina.
I couldn’t see the words.
But I saw his reaction.
Fear.
Not affection.
Fear.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“No one.”
He stood.
“I need to make a call.”
When he left the room, I whispered to myself:
“Who are you afraid of, Flynn?”
The answer arrived the next morning.
Rachel came to the hospital carrying a thick envelope.
She placed it on my bed.
“Your husband wasn’t planning to divorce you.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“He was planning to declare you legally incompetent.”
My blood turned cold.
Rachel opened the envelope.
Inside were medical documents.
Psychiatric evaluations.
Bank statements.
Witness statements.
And a draft petition claiming I had become emotionally unstable after abandoning my career.
“They were building a case,” Rachel said.
“For what?”
“To take control of your assets.”
I stared at her.
“What assets?”
She looked directly at me.
“The assets you didn’t know you owned.”
She pulled out another document.
My father’s old estate.
The estate Flynn had told me was worth almost nothing.
Except…
It wasn’t.
The land had been transferred years earlier into a private holding company.
And the beneficiary listed on that company was me.
My father’s property was now worth approximately $31 million.
I stared at the document.
Flynn hadn’t married me because he loved me.
At least, that was what I suddenly feared.
He had married me because of something I had inherited.
And Selina knew.
Rachel closed the folder.
“Mabel, I think the attack was never about a scratch.”
I looked toward the hospital window.
“No.”
My voice was barely audible.
“It was about getting me out of the way.”
PART 4 — THE WOMAN WHO KNEW MY FATHER
My father had been dead for nine years.
Flynn had attended the funeral.
He had stood beside me while I cried.
He had held my hand.
He had told me we would build a future together.
Now I wondered whether he had known about the inheritance even then.
Rachel found an old attorney who had worked with my father.
His name was Harold Bennett.
He agreed to meet us.
We sat in his office the following afternoon.
Harold was eighty-one and still sharp.
The moment he saw me, his expression changed.
“You look just like your father.”
I swallowed.
“Did he leave me something?”
Harold smiled sadly.
“He left you more than money.”
He opened a safe.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
My name was written across it in my father’s handwriting.
I touched it.
My hands shook.
Harold said, “He instructed me not to open it unless you came to me personally.”
I broke the seal.
The letter was short.
Mabel,
If you are reading this, something has gone wrong.
My eyes blurred.
You were always trusting.
That was your greatest strength and your greatest vulnerability.
There are people who will try to convince you that what I left you is simply land.
It isn’t.
I looked at Harold.
He said nothing.
I continued.
The land sits above something much more valuable.
My heart began racing.
For years, companies have tried to acquire it.
I refused.
Not because of the money.
Because of what lies beneath it.
There was one final sentence.
Never let Vance Global control Northstar.
I stared at the page.
Vance Global.
Flynn.
My husband.
Harold finally spoke.
“Your father discovered that a mineral deposit beneath the property could become extremely valuable.”
“How valuable?”
“Potentially hundreds of millions.”
I felt sick.
“And Flynn knew?”
Harold shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
But I did.
At least I knew he had known enough to hide it.
When I returned to the hospital, Flynn was waiting.
He had brought dinner.
He smiled.
“Your favorite.”
I sat down.
“Flynn.”
“Yes?”
“Did you know my father left me Northstar?”
The fork slipped from his hand.
It struck the plate.
That tiny sound told me everything.
He stared at me.
“Who told you?”
“My father.”
“That isn’t possible.”
“Why?”
“Because your father never trusted me.”
I smiled.
“Maybe he had a reason.”
Flynn stood.
“Mabel, listen to me.”
“No.”
He stopped.
“I listened to you for three years.”
I reached into the drawer and removed a copy of my father’s letter.
His face turned pale.
“You weren’t supposed to have that.”
There it was.
Not denial.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
“You knew.”
Flynn sat down.
“I knew about the property.”
“And you married me anyway?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then explain.”
He couldn’t.
Before he could speak, his phone rang.
This time I saw the caller.
Selina Cole.
Flynn rejected the call.
Then another call came.
He rejected it again.
A third time.
He finally answered.
“Selina, I told you not to call me here.”
I heard her voice faintly.
Flynn’s expression changed.
“What do you mean?”
He stood.
“Where are you?”
A pause.
Then:
“No. Don’t do anything.”
He hung up.
I watched him.
“What happened?”
He looked at me.
“Selina has the original Northstar documents.”
My heart sank.
“And she’s threatening you.”
He didn’t answer.
That was enough.
