Chapter 11 - BEFORE THE WEDDING
Grant Holloway agreed to meet.
He arrived without his usual polished confidence.
Rebecca did most of the talking.
“You knew Dominic before the Vale Strategic loan.”
Grant nodded.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Eight years.”
My stomach tightened.
Before our wedding.
“How?”
“Business school alumni network.”
“Why did my mother know your name?”
Grant looked at me.
“I met her once.”
My chair scraped backward.
“You met my mother?”
“At a charity dinner.”
“Why?”
“Dominic introduced us.”
I stared at him.
“Dominic told me he barely knew you until three years ago.”
“That wasn’t true.”
Everything came back to the same sentence.
That wasn’t true.
Grant rubbed his hands together.
“Your mother asked me direct questions about Dominic.”
“What questions?”
“Whether he had debt.”
“And?”
“He did.”
“How much?”
“At the time? Around three hundred thousand.”
I almost stopped breathing.
“When we married, he told me he had forty thousand in student loans.”
“He had failed investments.”
“Why didn’t you tell my mother?”
“I did.”
The room went silent.
Grant continued.
“She asked whether he was interested in your family’s money.”
I could barely speak.
“What did you say?”
“That I didn’t know.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“And the recent loan?”
Grant looked miserable.
“I was told Audrey approved it.”
“You never verified directly with me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Dominic said she had postpartum complications coming and wanted paperwork completed in advance.”
I felt sick.
“He planned the timing.”
Grant nodded slowly.
“He said after the baby arrived, you wouldn’t want financial stress.”
Rebecca’s voice sharpened.
“So your institution accepted documents supposedly signed by a woman who never appeared, never spoke to your team, and whose collateral included a separate family trust?”
Grant’s face reddened.
“Our procedures were not followed.”
“That’s one description.”
Grant swallowed.
“There’s something else.”
Of course there was.
“What?” I asked.
He reached into his briefcase.
“A letter Dominic gave us.”
My signature appeared at the bottom.
Another fake.
It authorized Dominic to negotiate broadly on my behalf.
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“Who notarized this?”
Grant pointed.
The notary stamp belonged to Paige.
I shut my eyes.
His entire family had been used.
Or had helped.
“Was Victoria involved?” I asked.
Grant hesitated.
That was answer enough.
“What did she do?”
“She attended one meeting.”
My heart pounded.
“My mother-in-law?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Grant stared at the table.
“She said you never understood money and Dominic handled everything.”
I remembered Victoria outside the hospital.
So did I.
That ridiculous girl is doing this for attention.
I stood.
“Where is Dominic now?”
“No idea.”
Rebecca’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then looked at me.
“They found him.”
“Where?”
“At the apartment.”
“What is he doing?”
Rebecca’s expression turned grim.
May you like
“Packing Leo’s nursery into boxes.”
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