Chapter 5 - The Attorney and the Trap
The morning after the funeral, a sharp, authoritative knock echoed through my apartment. I dragged myself out of my armchair and opened the door. Standing on my porch was Arthur Pendelton, Thomas’s stern, sharp-eyed lawyer. He didn't look like a man coming to offer sympathy. He carried a heavy, polished mahogany box securely beneath his arm. Without asking permission, he stepped inside my living room and set the box on my coffee table. He turned to me, gave a strange, humorless smile, and delivered the words that chilled my blood. “Thomas was right,” Arthur said softly. “You finally walked straight into his trap.” My hands began to shake violently. “What do you mean?” I whispered, backing away from the wooden box. Arthur didn't answer. He simply gestured for me to open it. I approached the table on unsteady legs. I unclasped the brass latch and slowly lifted the heavy wooden lid. And the moment I saw what Thomas had left inside, I screamed. It wasn't a severed finger or a gruesome threat. It was something far more terrifying: it was my entire life, meticulously documented. Inside the box were hundreds of photographs of me. Me at my college graduation. Me walking to my apartment in the city. Me eating alone at a diner in 1985. There were bank statements detailing my debts, and a ledger showing someone had been secretly paying off my medical bills for years. But that wasn't why I screamed. Beneath the photos was a glowing, red-stamped legal document. It was the deed to the local hospital where I worked, the deed to my apartment building, and a bank book containing eighty-five million dollars. And resting on top of the money was a handwritten letter from Thomas. “My dearest Nancy. I bought the hospital to ensure they would hire you. I bought your landlord's company to raise your rent so you would come back to work. I orchestrated everything to bring you back to me. I had to marry you. Because if I didn't, my vicious, greedy brother Marcus would inherit my empire and destroy this town. I have made you my sole heir. I have made you a billionaire. But beware, my love. They will come for you. And now, you cannot run away.”
