Chapter 4 - WHY JULIAN PICKED ME
Julian admitted the email account was his. Not immediately.
First he said family staff created it. Then Daniel produced domain records showing Julian himself purchased the address.
I asked one question. “Why?”
Julian looked at Victoria. Again.
I hated that reflex more than the lie. Agnes answered for him.
“Because of the old bylaws.” The early Hale companies had strange protections built into legacy property agreements. Certain transfers involving blood-family assets required an independent family witness who was related only by marriage and held no beneficial interest.
An outsider inside the family. A clean witness.
Victoria needed one. Julian was unmarried.
Then I appeared. How?
My employer supplied safety equipment to Hale construction projects. I negotiated a contract at a vendor luncheon.
Julian met me there. I barely remembered him from that day.
He remembered me enough to have a private investigator run a background report before our first actual date. Daniel found the report inside Dad’s folio.
Subject: Elena Mercer. Employment stable. Credit excellent. No real estate interests. Father owns small repair business. Mother resides Vermont. No litigation. No known Hale connections.
At the bottom, handwritten by Victoria: Ideal. I felt nauseated.
Then another note in Julian’s handwriting: Smart. Cautious. Hates conflict. Wants stable family.
I looked at him. “You investigated whether I was easy to control.”
“No.” “What do you call this?”
“I was supposed to meet you once.” “Supposed to?”
Victoria snapped, “Julian, stop.” He ignored her.
“My mother wanted to know if your family had any connection to Everett. She suspected your mother did.”
“So you dated me to find out?” “The first dinner.”
“And the second?” He looked at me.
“That was me.” I hated the answer because I believed it.
Then Dad’s folio contained emails between Julian and Victoria. VICTORIA: Don’t get sentimental.
JULIAN: Stop calling her a target. VICTORIA: Then stop treating the assignment like romance.
JULIAN: It is romance now. The timestamp was three months after our first date.
My heart broke in a more complicated way. The relationship was not entirely fake.
That did not make the beginning less dishonest. Then one later email, six months before Julian proposed: VICTORIA: Marriage solves the witness problem and Everett’s bloodline issue at once.
JULIAN: I’m proposing because I want to. VICTORIA: Convenient.
JULIAN: Go to hell. He had fought her.
Then he still married me without telling me why she wanted it. Love and cowardice had occupied the same man.
That was harder than discovering a pure villain. Then Agnes spoke.
“Your father knew.” I turned.
“Dad knew Julian investigated me?” “Yes.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?” Agnes looked toward the black folio.
May you like
Because Robert Mercer had not been waiting to protect me from Julian. He had been waiting to see whether Julian would choose me over the Hale plan.
And by letting me walk toward the wedding without the truth, my father had made a gamble with my life too.
