Chapter four

CHAPTER 4

Brenda didn’t like me, but at least she didn’t hide it. Winston, on the other hand, wanted to destroy my family but had been pretending to be clueless this whole time.

“The marriage is serving its purpose at this time,” Ashton said to his father with a cold tone. “When we’ve acquired all we need from the Thorne company, we’ll dissolve it quietly. Until then, she stays out of the way. I’m not having an heir with Mariah Thorne.”

My heart wrenched at everything he said. Not only was he a part of this, but he also didn’t believe that I was his wife. He still referred to me as Mariah Thorne.

“And what happens when you make a mistake and she figures it out?”

“She won’t,” Ashton assured with so much confidence that it scared me how sure he was that I wouldn’t find out.

They destroyed my family’s business. This marriage wasn’t arranged for both families to get their benefit. It was a way for me to get subdued so that they would have their way with my family.

I backed away from the door, my legs shaking and barely able to hold me up.

Every single investor that had pulled out of my father’s company without explanation… It was all planned by this family that I was now married into.

I ran into my bathroom and knelt in front of the toilet bowl as I retched and vomitted the coffee I’d had. I hoped I could vomit what I had found out, but I knew I couldn’t.

When I finished heaving, I rinsed my mouth and sat on the cold tiles with my back against the door as I tried to breathe through my feelings.

“They think I’m stupid,” I muttered as I started to toss all my feelings aside and realize the one thing that remained. Anger.

I sat there until my hands stopped trembling and my mind was clear enough for me to think strategically instead of emotionally.

“Since they want to play games, then let’s play games,” I said with resolve as I wiped the stray tears that had made it out of my eyes.

~

The rest of the morning was spent in the library as I sat down with my laptop to access my father’s company files.

Now that I looked at everything with new eyes, I figured it out. All of the investor meetings and the sudden withdrawal of key partnerships. Everything that had drained our accounts so far.

“We’ll recommend new investors for your company, and they’ll all come pouring in,” Winston had said the day before my marriage to Ashton.

Of course the investors would put their money in my father’s company without asking about the other investors that had pulled out. They were all being controlled by Winston, and if he bought shares…

Everything linked straight to the Langford family, and my father couldn’t see it.

Winston was right. We were desperate. Too desperate to know that it was suspicious for our biggest rival family to approach us with a marriage proposal right after our company started to fall from grace.

“You won’t make a mistake?” I scoffed as I recalled the conversation between Ashton and Winston. They had already made two mistakes. They had let me find out, and they had underestimated me.

If they planned to destroy my family from the inside, then it was to my advantage that I was married to their heir. I would do the same to them.

My phone buzzed with a text from my father.

Lunch today? I want to update you on the new investors and their prospects.

New prospects which were probably more Langford family poison being injected into our company to eat us from the inside.

I typed out a quick response.

I can’t today. Tomorrow.

He replied almost immediately, as if he was waiting for me to write back to him. He agreed on lunch tomorrow.

Guilt and shame twisted in my stomach. I had sacrificed my freedom and my happiness by getting married to Ashton for my family, but I hadn’t known that it was only one of their many plans to keep us in chains.

I would have to plan this carefully.

I was startled when my phone rang with an unknown number on the screen.

“Hello?” I said as I picked it up.

“You’re still there. I wasn’t sure if you would still be using this number after everything.”

“I’m sorry. Who’s this?” I questioned with raised brows.

“Someone who wants to help you. I know what the Langfords are capable of, and I know that you’ll get in trouble the longer you stay married into that family.”

It only took me a little while to realize that this was probably the same person who had sent me those mysterious texts.

“I’ll tell you everything I know if you agree to meet me at Westbrook private park at three o’clock. As a Langford, you automatically have access.”

“Why should I trust you?” I asked, already closing my laptop and standing up.

“You shouldn’t. But you shouldn’t trust your husband either.”

I knew that much. And I knew that if this person was telling me not to trust Ashton, then he knew more than he was letting on.

“And give me one good reason why I should be out of this house and heading to Westbrook park right now,” I said, taking my laptop in my hand and heading out of the library.

“I can help you find out what his full reason for marrying you is, and I can help you get revenge on the Langford family for everything.”

I grabbed my coat and walked out of the house, ignoring the housekeepers who insisted on finding out where I was going so they could tell Ashton if he asked.

“He won’t ask,” I said to Martha before walking out and getting into my car, thankful that I had asked them to bring it for me just two days into my marriage.

I drove off to the park, and as the stranger over the phone rightly said, I had free access to the park just because I was a Langford. They didn’t even have to ask. It was almost as if the last name was written on my face and they knew.

I walked into the park, noting how empty it was and sitting on a bench in wait.

Fifteen minutes past three, the doors opened to welcome a young man in a button-up shirt with rolled up sleeves.

I stood up, frowning as I took in his familiar grey eyes. One I couldn’t mistake for anything. It was the first thing you’d notice if you saw him.

“Elijah?” I called as he approached me, stopping in front of me with a serious look on his face that told me just what he was doing here. He was the unknown number that had told me to meet here.

He was the man I had dated once before I got married to Ashton.