PART4

I hadn’t cried this hard since my grandfather’s funeral.

Margaret sat beside me.

“He wanted you to have choices, sweetheart.”

I nodded, unable to speak.

Then Nolan interrupted.

“This is getting out of control.”

Margaret looked at him.

“No, Nolan. What’s getting out of control is the way you and your mother have treated my granddaughter.”

Nolan pointed toward the papers.

“Fine. She can have the hotel. She can have whatever money her grandmother wants to give her. But I’m still her husband, and I deserve to be involved in decisions that affect our marriage.”

I slowly looked up.

“You’re not listening.”

He turned toward me.

“What?”

“I never said you couldn’t support me. I said I wanted to manage my own inheritance.”

“You don’t understand what you’re doing.”

“Maybe I don’t know everything about running a hotel yet. But I know enough to hire people who do.”

Vivian let out an irritated sigh.

“Honestly, Claire, you’re allowing this money to change you.”

I almost smiled.

“That’s interesting coming from someone who wanted to manage a $150 million hotel before I had even finished my birthday cake.”

Her mouth fell open.

Nolan stepped between us.

“Enough. We’re not doing this in front of everyone.”

Margaret stood.

“Actually, I think we are.”

She looked at Daniel.

“Please explain the remaining documents.”

Daniel opened the final section of his briefcase.

“There is one additional matter, Mrs. Dawson.”

He placed a document on the table.

It was a property ownership record.

I looked at the address.

It was the address of the house we were standing in.

Daniel cleared his throat.

“According to the records, the initial purchase of this property was financed through a private arrangement involving a company owned by the Dawson family trust.”

Nolan’s expression changed.

Margaret nodded.

“That’s correct.”

I turned toward her.

“Grandma?”

She gently squeezed my hand.

“Three years ago, Nolan told me he wanted to provide you with a beautiful home. He asked whether I could help arrange the financing while his company recovered.”

Nolan looked furious.

“That’s not how it happened.”

Margaret continued.

“The property was purchased through a company connected to the trust. Nolan and Claire were permitted to live there under the terms of the arrangement.”

I stared at the document.

“So the house…”

“Is not owned by Nolan personally,” Daniel explained carefully.

Vivian took a step backward.

“But Nolan has been paying the expenses.”

“Some of them,” Daniel replied. “The ownership documents are quite clear.”

Margaret looked directly at Vivian.

“You just told my granddaughter that she needed to leave because this was your son’s home.”

She paused.

“Would you like to repeat that statement?”

Vivian’s face had turned bright red.

Nolan looked as though someone had pulled the floor out from underneath him.

“This is a setup,” he muttered.

Margaret shook her head.

“No. This is paperwork.”

She turned to Daniel.

“Please prepare a complete review of the property’s ownership, expenses, and any outstanding obligations. I want everything independently verified.”

“Of course.”

Then she looked at Nolan.

“Until the review is complete, nobody is making any changes to the property or its arrangements.”

Nolan clenched his fists.

“You can’t do this to me.”

Margaret’s voice remained calm.

“I haven’t done anything to you, Nolan. I’ve simply stopped allowing you to make decisions on behalf of someone else.”

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then Margaret turned toward me.

“Claire, sweetheart, would you like to come home with me tonight?”

I glanced at the overnight bag.

Then at Nolan.

For three years, I had waited for him to choose me over his mother.

I had waited for him to defend me.

I had waited for him to treat me like his wife instead of someone who was fortunate to have been accepted into his family.

But standing there, I finally understood something.

I couldn’t spend the rest of my life waiting for someone to give me the respect I should never have had to beg for.

“Yes, Grandma,” I whispered. “I’d like to come with you.”

Margaret smiled.

“Then let’s go.”

I reached for my bag.

But before I could lift it, Nolan suddenly stepped forward.

“Claire, wait.”

I stopped.

His voice had changed completely.

The anger was gone.

Now he sounded almost desperate.

“Can we talk? Just the two of us?”

I looked at him.

“About what?”

He glanced at Margaret, then at the documents scattered across the coffee table.

“About our marriage.”

I waited.

Then he said something that made me realize he still hadn’t understood what had happened that evening.

“Don’t make a decision you’ll regret. We can work something out. You don’t have to bring lawyers into this.”

Margaret’s eyes narrowed slightly.

I looked at my husband for a long moment.

“Three hours ago, you threatened to divorce me because I wouldn’t give you control of my grandmother’s hotel.”

He swallowed.

“Claire…”

“And now that you know how much I’m worth, suddenly you want to save our marriage?”

He didn’t answer.

I picked up my overnight bag.

“That’s not the kind of marriage I want.”

Then I walked toward the door.

But just as Margaret reached for the handle, Daniel’s phone rang.

He checked the screen.

His expression changed.

“Mrs. Dawson?”

Margaret turned.

“What is it?”

Daniel hesitated.

“I think you should see this before we leave.”

He held out his phone.

Margaret looked at the screen for several seconds.

Then her expression became completely unreadable.

“What is this?” she asked.

Daniel lowered his voice.

“It’s an email that arrived at the hotel this afternoon. The sender appears to be connected to Nolan’s company.”

I felt my stomach tighten.

“What email?”

Margaret slowly turned the phone toward me.

The subject line read:

PROPOSED MANAGEMENT TRANSFER — DAWSON GRAND HOTEL

I looked at the date.

It had been sent before my birthday dinner.

Before my grandmother had even handed me the ownership documents.

And the attached proposal contained something that made my blood run cold.

Nolan’s company had already prepared a plan to take over the hotel’s management.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

At the bottom of the proposal was a signature authorization bearing my name.

A signature I had never written.

Margaret looked at me.

“Claire, sweetheart…”

Her voice was unusually quiet.

“Have you ever signed anything giving Nolan permission to manage your grandmother’s hotel?”

I stared at the document.

Then I shook my head.

“No.”

Margaret slowly closed the phone cover.

“Then I think it’s time we find out who forged your signature.”

And for the first time that evening, I saw something in my grandmother’s eyes that I had never seen before.

She wasn’t just disappointed anymore.

She was furious.

CONTINUE FOR NEXT PART5…