Chapter 13 - The Daughter They Tried to Trade
I opened the door only after checking the porch camera and seeing that Sloane was alone. Nick brought her a towel. She looked more frightened than she had at the wedding, and it wasn't because of the rain.
“I'm not asking you to like me,” she said. “But I'm done being a bargaining chip.”
She laid the damp folder on a dry kitchen towel. It held emails between Vivian and Martha. Most concerned the Riverbend purchase, but several discussed what Vivian called the marriage complication.
One message read: IF THE GIRL WALKED OUT OF THE RECEPTION HUMILIATED, NICK WOULD COME TO HIS SENSES. SLOANE AND THE CAPITAL WOULD FOLLOW.
Vivian had replied: MAKE IT PUBLIC. SHE WON'T WANT TO STAY.
I felt cold all over. “You knew they were planning something?”
“I knew they wanted you two apart,” Sloane said. “I didn't know they were going to touch you. I found those messages tonight.”
Nick frowned. “Why would your mother lend millions if she wasn't getting shares?”
Sloane pointed to an attachment. “She wasn't lending to save the company. She was paying to buy Riverbend cheaply through MHC, then flip it to a developer. If you married me, she'd have another way to keep control of the Hale name when the fraud came out.”
Mara, awakened by our call, joined us by video. She told Sloane to preserve the original emails and not delete anything, even messages that made her look bad. Sloane agreed.
Sloane began to cry without making a sound. “She told me loving somebody was a business decision. I started believing her.”
I passed her a box of tissues. “You don't have to become your mother.”
She wiped her face. “Neither does Nick.”
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Then she opened the final attachment. A spreadsheet listed names of eleven residents who had refused to move, with dollar amounts beside them.
Next to Marisol Vega's name were two words: REMOVE FIRST.
