The man's name was Ethan Mercer.
Mercer.
The same surname Briana had used before marriage.
I asked the investigator whether Ethan was related to her.
“Brother?”
“Not according to the records.”
“Father?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“We're still working on that.”
I sat at my desk long after the call ended.
The name bothered me.
Not because I knew Ethan.
Because Briana had never mentioned him.
Not to Colton.
Not to my parents.
Not to me.
And apparently not to Desmond either.
I called Desmond.
“Have you heard the name Ethan Mercer?”
He was quiet.
Then he said, “Yes.”
My pulse quickened.
“When?”
“Before I married Briana.”
“You knew him?”
“Barely.”
“What did you know?”
Desmond explained that Ethan had worked with Briana on several real-estate transactions.
They had been close.
Very close.
Then, suddenly, Ethan disappeared.
Briana told Desmond that Ethan had stolen money and fled.
“Did you believe her?”
“At the time, yes.”
“Did you ever see proof?”
“No.”
That answer bothered me.
“What happened after Ethan disappeared?”
“She married me.”
I looked down.
“Was he involved with her when you met?”
Desmond sighed.
“I think so.”
I thanked him.
Then I called the investigator.
“I need you to find Ethan.”
“We're trying.”
“Try harder.”
He understood the urgency.
Three days passed.
Then he called.
“We found an address.”
It was in Idaho.
Ethan was alive.
He was working as a maintenance supervisor at a ski resort.
The investigator asked whether I wanted him contacted.
“Yes.”
I didn't expect what happened next.
Ethan agreed to speak.
Not in person.
By video call.
His face appeared on my laptop screen.
He looked older than the photograph attached to the investigator's file.
Gray at the temples.
A narrow scar along his jaw.
Tired eyes.
He studied me.
“You're Vanessa.”
“Yes.”
“I've heard about you.”
“From Briana?”
“No.”
He gave a humorless smile.
“From the court records.”
I told him why I was calling.
He listened.
When I mentioned the clinic, his expression changed.
“You found that?”
“Yes.”
He leaned back.
“I wondered how long it would take.”
“What happened?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Briana was pregnant.”
My throat tightened.
“When?”
“Before she married Colton.”
“With your child?”
“Yes.”
The answer was immediate.
No hesitation.
I asked whether Colton knew.
“No.”
“Did Briana tell him?”
“I don't think so.”
“What happened to the pregnancy?”
Ethan looked away.
“She said she lost it.”
I waited.
“Did she?”
“I don't know.”
He explained that Briana had told him she was pregnant and wanted him to marry her. Ethan refused.
He was already engaged to someone else.
Briana became furious.
She threatened to expose him.
Then she claimed the pregnancy had ended.
A month later, she married Colton.
I asked about the clinic payment.
Ethan shook his head.
“She went there because she wanted genetic testing.”
“Why?”
“She wasn't sure whether the baby was mine.”
I stared at him.
“Then who?”
“She mentioned another man.”
“Who?”
“Someone from a company she had been dealing with.”
He couldn't remember the name.
But he remembered one thing.
Briana had been frightened.
Not about losing the baby.
About someone finding out the child's father wasn't who she claimed.
I asked whether the pregnancy had actually ended.
Ethan looked directly at me.
“I don't know.”
That uncertainty followed me for days.
It would have been easier if there had been a definite answer.
Instead, there was another unanswered question.
Was there a child?
If so, where?
And why had Briana married Colton?
The investigator continued searching.
Meanwhile, Colton finally contacted me.
He asked to meet.
I agreed.
We met in a public park.
He looked thinner.
His clothes no longer carried the careless confidence he had once worn like armor.
He sat beside me on a bench.
“I lost the apartment.”
“I know.”
“I lost my car.”
“I know.”
He stared at the ground.
“I owe people money.”
“I know.”
He laughed once.
It wasn't funny.
“You really know everything now.”
“Not everything.”
He looked at me.
“I need to tell you something.”
I waited.
Before he could speak, his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
“It's my lawyer.”
He answered.
I watched his face.
He listened.
Then he hung up.
“What happened?”
He swallowed.
“They found another account.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
“Did you open it?”
“No.”
He looked terrified.
“There are deposits in it.”
“How much?”
“About seventy thousand.”
My stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Over the last year.”
I looked at him.
“Who has access?”
“I don't know.”
The investigator later confirmed the account had been opened using Colton's identity.
The deposits came from several businesses.
None belonged to him.
One of them traced back to Briana.
Another belonged to a company associated with Ethan.
That changed everything.
I asked Ethan about the account.
He became silent.
Then he said, “I knew she was laundering money.”
“Through Colton?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She's been moving money between shell companies for years.”
I asked why he hadn't reported her.
His answer was simple.
“I was afraid.”
“Of her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she knows things about me.”
“What things?”
He refused to answer.
That refusal made me suspicious.
I told him that if he wanted protection, he needed to cooperate fully.
He agreed.
The next morning, he sent investigators a collection of emails.
They were devastating.
Briana had communicated with Ethan shortly before marrying Colton.
She told him she needed “a clean husband.”
She said Colton was easy to control.
She said his family had money.
Then she wrote something that made my hands go cold.
“His sister is the real target.”
I read that sentence three times.
The investigator called immediately.
“Vanessa, there's more.”
He sent another email.
Briana had described my career.
My investments.
My company's stock.
The scholarship account I hadn't even created yet.
She had known about my financial position in astonishing detail.
But one thing was impossible.
Some of the information in those emails had never been public.
Only my financial adviser and one other person knew it.
I called my adviser.
He denied sharing anything.
That left one possibility.
Someone inside my family had been giving Briana information.
I looked at the old family photograph.
Colton.
My parents.
Me.
And suddenly I noticed something I had never noticed before.
Briana had been standing beside my mother.
Not beside Colton.
Beside my mother.
The person she had been talking to all evening was not my brother.
It was my mother.
I called her.
She answered immediately.
“Vanessa?”
“Did you ever tell Briana about my investments?”
She went silent.
“Mom.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don't know.”
“What did you tell her?”
She began crying.
“I told her you had money.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“I told her you had shares in Kaleth.”
“How many?”
“I don't remember.”
I closed my eyes.
Then she whispered something else.
“She asked me how much you were worth.”
I felt the old anger rise again.
“What did you say?”
“I guessed.”
“How much?”
My mother gave me a number.
It was almost exactly correct.
I stared at the wall.
She hadn't guessed.
Someone had told her.
And the person who had told her had access to my private financial records.
That evening, my attorney called.
“Vanessa, we traced the information.”
“To Briana?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
He hesitated.
“Your brother.”
I sat down.
Colton had been giving Briana information about me.
Not once.
Repeatedly.
Before the wedding.
Before the business loan.
Before the fraudulent application.
He had helped her map my finances.
I called him.
He answered on the first ring.
“Vanessa.”
“Did you give Briana my financial information?”
Silence.
“Colton.”
“Yes.”
My eyes closed.
“Why?”
“I thought she was helping us.”
“Helping you do what?”
He began crying.
“Get out of debt.”
“With my money?”
“I didn't know what she was planning.”
“You gave her my tax records.”
“I was desperate.”
“You gave her my signature.”
“I didn't know she'd use it.”
“You gave her everything.”
“I know.”
His voice broke.
“I know now.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I asked the only question that mattered.
“How long have you known?”
He hesitated.
Then he said, “Since before the wedding.”
My stomach dropped.
“Known what?”
“That Briana wasn't marrying me for love.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: Colton Finally Admitted What He Had Known Before the Wedding, and Vanessa Realized His Silence Had Put Her in Danger
The Message That Finally Made Vanessa Stop Paying for a Family That Had Never Learned Her Worth
Part 7 of 20
