Michael Grant sat across from me in the interview room three days later.
I had expected someone nervous.
Instead, he looked composed.
His gray suit was immaculate, his silver watch sat perfectly beneath his cuff, and his hands rested loosely on the table as though we were meeting for an ordinary business discussion.
Detective Pierce sat beside me.
My father was in the observation room.
Michael looked at me.
“Anna.”
I said nothing.
He glanced toward Detective Pierce.
“I was told this was about the investigation.”
“It is.”
“Then why is she here?”
“Because the investigation concerns her.”
He looked back at me.
“I’m sorry for what happened.”
His voice sounded sincere.
That almost made it worse.
I studied his face.
“You've known me for three years.”
“Yes.”
“You knew who my father was.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about my family's assets.”
“I knew some things.”
“You paid someone to investigate me before my wedding.”
Michael's expression barely changed.
“I hired a firm to conduct due diligence.”
“On me?”
“On the circumstances surrounding David's marriage.”
I stared at him.
“That isn't an answer.”
He sighed.
“David was entering a marriage with someone whose family background was unusual.”
“You mean powerful.”
“I mean complicated.”
Detective Pierce leaned forward.
“Did you know Anna's father was Chief Justice Thorne?”
“Yes.”
“Did David?”
Michael hesitated.
“Eventually.”
“When?”
“Before the wedding.”
I looked at him.
“David knew before we married?”
“Yes.”
The room seemed to tilt.
My husband had spent years pretending my father's identity was a revelation.
Michael had just destroyed that lie.
“You're lying.”
“I have no reason to.”
“You told David?”
“No.”
“Then how did he find out?”
Michael looked at the table.
“Richard told him.”
My stomach tightened.
“Richard Vale.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard believed David needed to understand what he was getting into.”
I almost laughed.
“What he was getting into?”
Michael's jaw tightened.
“Those were his words.”
I remembered the message.
She will eventually inherit everything, so don't underestimate the value of the marriage.
I looked at Detective Pierce.
“Did Michael send that?”
She turned toward him.
“Did you?”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I don't know.”
“Do you expect us to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because there were people involved who never reported to me.”
The words made me sit straighter.
“People?”
Michael nodded.
“Richard had his own contacts.”
“And David?”
“David wanted information.”
“What information?”
Michael looked at me.
“Everything.”
I felt sick.
“Everything about what?”
“You.”
Silence filled the room.
Michael continued.
“Your family. Your father's career. Your mother's estate. Trust arrangements. Properties. Future inheritance.”
“Why?”
“Because David believed marrying you could give him access.”
My throat tightened.
“Access to what?”
“Your family.”
I shook my head.
“He never asked me for money.”
Michael gave me a tired look.
“He didn't need to ask directly.”
That sentence stayed with me.
He explained that David had learned early that my father controlled substantial family assets through trusts and property holdings.
David believed that if we married, those assets would eventually become available to me.
He had wanted to know how much.
When.
Under what conditions.
And whether there were ways to accelerate it.
I remembered conversations I had once considered harmless.
David asking whether my parents had wills.
Whether my father had changed his estate plan.
Whether my mother had any siblings.
Whether I had signed anything before our wedding.
I had answered casually.
Now every answer felt like a piece of evidence.
“What did David plan to do with the money?”
Michael hesitated.
“Invest.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Michael.”
He rubbed his thumb against his palm.
“Somewhere overseas.”
My father's voice came through the speaker from the observation room.
“Which country?”
Michael looked toward the wall.
He knew my father was listening.
“I don't know.”
Detective Pierce entered the question again.
“Which country?”
Michael finally answered.
“Cayman Islands.”
I felt my stomach drop.
My father didn't move.
Detective Pierce wrote it down.
“Did David establish an account there?”
“Not directly.”
“Who did?”
Michael's eyes shifted.
“That depends on what you mean by establish.”
“Answer the question.”
“Richard had access to one.”
My father entered the room.
The door closed behind him.
Michael's composure disappeared for the first time.
“Chief Justice.”
My father ignored the title.
“You've been involved in this from the beginning.”
Michael swallowed.
“I was involved in the financial investigation.”
“Of my daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Without her knowledge.”
“Yes.”
My father stood across from him.
“Why?”
Michael looked at me.
“Because Richard believed she would inherit your estate.”
My father said nothing.
Michael continued.
“He thought you had concealed significant assets from the public.”
“I had not.”
“We know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
“Yes.”
“Then why continue?”
Michael lowered his eyes.
“Because David wanted to know whether the marriage would give him access.”
I felt something inside me crack.
Not grief.
Recognition.
My husband hadn't merely married me and later become greedy.
Someone had examined my life before the wedding.
Someone had calculated my value.
Someone had decided I was worth pursuing.
And I had mistaken that attention for love.
Detective Pierce asked, “What about the pregnancy?”
Michael looked uncomfortable.
“What about it?”
“Why did you and David discuss it before Anna gave birth?”
“I don't know.”
“You have the messages.”
“I didn't write them.”
“But you saw them.”
“Yes.”
“Explain.”
Michael leaned back.
“David was worried.”
“About what?”
“That Anna would change after the baby.”
I stared at him.
“Change how?”
“He believed the child would make you more independent.”
I closed my eyes.
The message from Sylvia came back.
A baby will make her harder to control.
Michael saw my expression.
“I didn't write that.”
“But you knew about it.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you stop them?”
He looked ashamed.
“I thought it was business.”
I stared at him.
“My life was business to you?”
He had no answer.
The interview continued for nearly two hours.
By the end, we knew Michael had paid for surveillance.
He had received reports.
He had passed some information to David.
He had attended meetings with Richard.
But he insisted he had never intended physical harm.
I believed him about one thing.
He had not pushed me.
But I didn't believe his hands were clean.
When he left, my father sat beside me.
I stared at the table.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Not even a suspicion?”
“I knew Richard had a grievance.”
“But not this.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“I thought I had hidden your identity from David.”
My father sighed.
“You did.”
“Then how did they find out?”
“We're still tracing that.”
Detective Pierce returned with another file.
“We found something.”
She placed a copy of our marriage certificate on the table.
I frowned.
“What am I looking at?”
“Look at the filing date.”
I did.
It had been filed three days before our wedding.
“That isn't unusual.”
“No.”
She turned the page.
“This copy was requested six weeks before the wedding.”
My heart stopped.
“Who requested it?”
“Michael's firm.”
I looked at my father.
Then at the certificate.
Six weeks before the wedding.
Before I had even chosen my dress.
Before David had told me he wanted our marriage to be private.
Before he had claimed he wanted nothing from my family.
The investigation had started before our vows.
And suddenly I remembered the first time David had said something that should have frightened me.
We had been sitting in a coffee shop after our third date.
He had looked at me and asked, almost casually:
“Do you think your father would approve of me?”
I had laughed.
I had assumed he was joking.
Now I knew he had never been joking.
Click here to continue reading: PART 10: The Marriage Certificate Was Requested Before David Proposed, and One Forgotten Conversation Forced Me to Reconsider the Day We First Met
By Christmas Evening, I Had Become Invisible in My Husband’s Family, and One Empty Chair Finally Exposed What They Really Thought of Me
Part 9 of 20
