I looked at my father.
He read the messages.
“Don’t go alone.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
He called Leonard and asked him to arrange a secure meeting at the company’s private conference facility.
But before we could leave, Arthur knocked.
“Mr. Prescott, there’s someone downstairs asking to see Eleanor.”
“Who?”
Arthur hesitated.
“Mrs. Catherine Miller.”
I almost laughed.
“She has a lot of confidence.”
Arthur continued.
“She says it’s urgent. She’s been crying.”
My father looked at me.
“Do you want to see her?”
I thought about the way she had sat in the vice president’s chair.
The way she had spoken to me as though I were an unwanted guest in my own family business.
“Yes,” I said. “Bring her up.”
Ten minutes later, Catherine entered.
Her makeup was ruined.
Her expensive pearls were gone.
She looked nothing like the confident woman who had laughed at me outside the courthouse.
“Eleanor.”
I said nothing.
She stepped toward me.
“Please. You have to listen.”
I crossed my arms.
“You have three minutes.”
She looked at my father.
“Paul, I know you hate me. But this has gone too far.”
My father replied coldly.
“You made it go this far.”
Catherine began crying.
“Anthony has done terrible things. I know that. But I didn’t know everything.”
I looked at her.
“You approved the contracts.”
“I was told they were legitimate.”
“You hired your relatives.”
“They needed jobs.”
“You used company money to pay for private expenses.”
Her mouth opened.
Then closed.
I stepped closer.
“Why are you here?”
She reached into her handbag and removed a small USB drive.
“Because Anthony is planning to destroy the company records.”
My father stood.
“What?”
“He has another copy of the financial database. He told me that if you removed him, he would make certain that the company couldn’t recover.”
I stared at the USB drive.
“Why would you help us?”
Catherine looked down.
“Because he threatened me too.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
She wiped her eyes.
“Anthony told me that he had arranged everything so that if the investigation began, the blame would fall on me. The consulting companies, the questionable invoices, the unauthorized transfers. He planned to make me the person responsible.”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak.
My former husband had not simply used his family.
He had been preparing to sacrifice them.
Catherine continued.
“He told me that he had another investor. Someone who could take control of the company if Prescott Holdings became unstable.”
My father exchanged a glance with Arthur.
“Who?”
Catherine hesitated.
Then she said a name.
“Richard Hale.”
My father went completely still.
I recognized the name.
Richard Hale was a businessman who had competed against Prescott Holdings for years. He had tried to acquire several of our subsidiaries and had failed every time.
“What does Richard have to do with Anthony?” I asked.
Catherine lowered her voice.
“They were meeting secretly. Anthony promised him access to company information in exchange for a position after the takeover.”
My father took the USB drive.
“Arthur, contact the company’s legal team. Preserve this evidence. Nothing gets opened until our forensic investigators examine it.”
Catherine grabbed my hand.
“Eleanor, please. I know I don’t deserve forgiveness, but you need to understand something.”
I looked at her fingers around mine.
“What?”
She swallowed.
“Anthony didn’t marry you because he loved you.”
I pulled my hand away.
“I know.”
“No,” she whispered. “You don’t know the worst part.”
She looked at my father.
“Anthony knew about your mother’s trust before he proposed.”
The room seemed to tilt.
My father closed his eyes.
Catherine continued.
“He asked me to help him get close to your family. He said marrying you was the easiest way to gain access to the Prescott empire.”
I stared at her.
Five years.
Five years of birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, promises, and photographs.
Five years of believing that someone loved me.
I felt something inside me break.
But I refused to let it become weakness.
“Leave,” I said.
Catherine started crying again.
“Eleanor—”
“Leave.”
She walked toward the door.
Before she disappeared, she turned around.
“One more thing. Anthony has a meeting tonight. If he discovers that I gave you that drive, he’ll know everything.”
The door closed.
My father looked at me.
“We need to move carefully.”
I nodded.
But I was no longer thinking about revenge.
I was thinking about the girl I had been five years earlier.
The girl who had defended Anthony.
The girl who had ignored every warning.
The girl who had mistaken manipulation for love.
And I made myself a promise.
Nobody would ever use my trust against me again.
PART 4 – THE NIGHT MY EX-MOTHER-IN-LAW CAME RUNNING
At 8:30 that evening, the investigation team confirmed something extraordinary.
The USB drive contained records indicating that several confidential company files had been copied to an external system.
There were also messages between Anthony and Richard Hale.
But the most important discovery was a draft agreement.
It outlined a proposed transfer of certain Prescott Holdings assets to a newly created investment company.
The agreement was not validly approved.
It was not signed by the required directors.
And it could not lawfully transfer ownership of the company.
But it revealed what Anthony had intended.
He wanted to create a financial crisis, make the company appear unstable, and then position himself as the person who could supposedly rescue it.
I read the document twice.
“Does he really think he can get away with this?”
Our attorney, Margaret Collins, shook her head.
“He may have believed he could. But now that we have preserved the records, the situation is very different.”
My father stood by the window.
“He has always underestimated Eleanor.”
I looked at him.
“Dad, I don’t want him arrested simply because he hurt me. I want every allegation investigated properly. If he committed a crime, the evidence should establish it.”
Margaret nodded.
“That’s exactly the approach we need.”
At 9:15, my phone rang.
Anthony.
I answered.
“Hello?”
His voice was different.
No confidence.
No laughter.
Just anger.
“What did you do?”
I looked at the clock.
“Good evening to you too.”
“Where is my mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t play games, Eleanor. She gave you something, didn’t she?”
I said nothing.
He began shouting.
“You have no idea what you’ve started. My mother has worked for that company for years!”
“Your mother worked for a company that belonged to my family.”
“Your family?” He laughed bitterly. “You were nothing before I came along!”
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
“Anthony, you were given a job because I believed in you. You were given authority because my father trusted me. You were given opportunities because I wanted us to build something together.”
“And we did!”
“No. You built a position for yourself. There is a difference.”
He went silent.
Then he said something I would never forget.
“You think you can take everything away from me? I’ll make sure you lose the company too.”
I ended the call.
At 10:05, Leonard received a message from security.
Anthony had arrived at the headquarters.
He was not alone.
Two men were waiting in a vehicle outside.
My father instructed security to keep the building controlled and asked our attorneys to remain available.
Nobody was to confront him unnecessarily.
At 10:22, Catherine arrived.
But this time, she was running.
Her coat was open, her hair was disheveled, and one of her shoes was almost coming off.
She burst through the lobby doors, shouting my name.
“ELEANOR!”
The receptionist jumped up.
Leonard approached her.
“Mrs. Miller, you need to calm down.”
“Where is Eleanor? I need to speak to her!”
I was standing near the private elevator when I heard her voice.
I stepped forward.
“Catherine?”
She ran toward me.
“Please! You have to stop him!”
Her hands were shaking.
“What happened?”
“He’s gone too far. He’s going to destroy everything!”
“Who?”
“Anthony!”
She grabbed my arm.
“He has been calling people all evening. He says the company is already his. He says the board will have no choice but to accept his proposal.”
