Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Champagne DressLauren Pierce had always believed there were two kinds of women.
The curtains were pale blue.
The old oak dresser still had a tiny scratch in the corner where she had dropped a curling iron at seventeen.
Outside the windows, moonlight spread across the Hudson River.
Daniel’s house had changed since Grace moved out.
He had renovated the kitchen.
Built a guest wing.
Turned the old library into an office.
But her bedroom remained almost untouched.
Grace sat beneath the blankets with one hand over her stomach.
Her daughter moved gently.
A flutter.
Then another.
Grace closed her eyes.
“Hi, baby.”
Her voice broke.
She swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
She did not know what she was apologizing for.
Choosing Ethan?
Staying too long?
Not seeing what he had become?
Bringing a child into a marriage that had collapsed before she had understood it was collapsing?
A soft knock came at the door.
“Come in.”
Daniel entered carrying two mugs.
“Chamomile.”
Grace looked at him.
“At three in the morning?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“You never sleep.”
“Correct.”
He handed her the mug and sat in the chair near the window.
For a while neither spoke.
Then Grace said, “You were right.”
Daniel frowned.
“About Ethan.”
“I don’t want to be right about that.”
“You warned me.”
“I wanted to be wrong.”
Grace looked down at her tea.
“Why didn’t you say more?”
“I did.”
“You could have stopped me.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“You were twenty-eight.”
“So?”
“You would have married him in the courthouse parking lot just to prove I couldn’t stop you.”
That made her smile despite herself.
He was right.
Grace had always been stubborn.
The youngest Hale sibling.
The only daughter.
Their mother died when Grace was twelve.
Their father, Thomas Hale, had raised four children with a combination of affection, expectation, and ruthless discipline.
When he died suddenly nine years later, Daniel became more than a brother.
He became a protector.
Sometimes too much of one.
Grace had spent years escaping the Hale name because she wanted to know who she was without it.
Then Ethan appeared.
He treated her like an ordinary woman.
At least at first.
He did not know her family.
Did not know her inheritance.
Did not know that the modest nonprofit where she worked was largely funded by a trust she controlled.
Grace believed she had finally found a man who loved her for herself.
The cruel irony was that Ethan had eventually become exactly the type of man she feared.
A man obsessed with status.
Daniel leaned forward.
“Grace, I need to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Has he hit you before?”
“No.”
Daniel watched her carefully.
“He’s grabbed my arm.”
His expression darkened.
“Once.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“And you didn’t tell us.”
“I told myself it wasn’t serious.”
Daniel looked away toward the windows.
Grace knew that look.
He was angry at himself.
“Don’t,” she said.
“Don’t what?”
“Make this your failure.”
He was silent.
“I hid things because I didn’t want you all saying you were right.”
“That sounds exactly like you.”
“Thanks.”
Daniel smiled faintly.
Then his expression became serious.
“There’s something else.”
Grace felt the shift.
“What?”
“Michael found irregularities.”
“In Ethan’s company?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
Daniel hesitated.
That frightened her.
“Financial.”
“How bad?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Grace thought about Ethan’s increasingly secretive behavior.
The loans.
The late-night calls.
His obsession with securing a new development project in Manhattan.
“Is he in trouble?”
“Probably.”
“With whom?”
“That’s what Michael is trying to determine.”
A knock sounded again.
Michael entered without waiting.
He wore yesterday’s shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows, phone in his hand.
“You’re both awake.”
Daniel looked at him.
“What did you find?”
Michael glanced at Grace.
“You should sleep.”
She stared at him.
“Try that again.”
He sighed and sat on the edge of the dresser.
“Walker Development has more debt than Ethan disclosed.”
“How much?”
“Potentially eighty million.”
Grace nearly dropped her mug.
“What?”
“He borrowed aggressively against future project revenue. Some loans are legitimate. Others are… complicated.”
Daniel frowned.
“Complicated how?”
“Shell companies.”
Grace felt cold.
“Illegal?”
“Not necessarily. But suspicious.”
Michael handed Daniel his phone.
“There’s also a private bridge loan due in twelve days.”
Daniel read the screen.
“How much?”
“Eighteen million.”
Grace whispered, “Who lent him eighteen million dollars?”
Michael looked at her.
“That’s the problem.”
“The lender is a company called Northstar Holdings.”
“So?”
“Northstar is controlled through three layers of LLCs.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“You traced it?”
“I did.”
“To whom?”
Michael looked toward the closed door.
Then back at Grace.
“Victor Serrano.”
Grace knew the name.
Everyone in New York finance knew the name.
Victor Serrano presented himself as a hotel developer and investor.
Rumors said he made much of his real money through illegal gambling, predatory loans, and businesses respectable people preferred not to investigate too closely.
Grace’s heart sank.
“Ethan borrowed from Serrano?”
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
“To keep Walker Development alive.”
Grace stared toward the window.
She remembered Ethan telling her his company was about to become one of the biggest independent developers in the city.
She remembered champagne.
Celebrations.
Magazine interviews.
A new Porsche.
He had been drowning and pretending he was swimming.
Daniel returned Michael’s phone.
“Does Serrano know Grace is a Hale?”
Michael’s silence answered.
Grace looked sharply at him.
“What?”
“We don’t know.”
“Why would that matter?”
Lucas appeared in the doorway.
“Because if Serrano knew, Ethan’s loan might not have been about Ethan.”
Grace turned toward him.
Lucas walked in carrying a folder.
“Remember the Westbridge project?”
Grace nodded.
It was a huge redevelopment planned along the Hudson waterfront.
Hale Capital had quietly accumulated land around the site.
Ethan had tried unsuccessfully to secure financing for a competing bid.
Lucas opened the folder.
“Walker Development submitted another proposal yesterday.”
Grace stared at him.
“Yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible. Ethan told me the deal was dead.”
“It wasn’t.”
Daniel stood.
“What’s his funding source?”
Lucas looked toward Michael.
“Northstar.”
The room became silent.
Grace’s pulse quickened.
“What does this have to do with me?”
Lucas hesitated.
Then he slid a document across the bed.
Grace looked down.
It was a copy of an authorization form.
Her name appeared at the bottom.
Grace Evelyn Hale Bennett Walker.
Her signature was beneath it.
She stopped breathing.
“What is this?”
“A personal asset certification,” Lucas said.
Grace scanned the page.
The document appeared to list her trust holdings as secondary financial support for Ethan’s development financing.
She stared at the signature.
“That isn’t mine.”
“We know.”
Grace looked up.
“He forged it?”
“We don’t know if Ethan personally did.”
“Who else?”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“Someone inside his company.”
Grace felt nausea rise.
“Does this mean he tried to use my inheritance?”
“Potentially.”
Daniel moved closer.
“Grace, we need to verify the original documents before assuming anything.”
She barely heard him.
The slap suddenly seemed different.
Not less terrible.
But part of something larger.
Lauren.
The anniversary.
Ethan’s anger when Grace demanded answers.
His accusation that everything “belonged” to her.
A horrible thought formed.
“Does Lauren work for Walker Development?”
Michael nodded slowly.
“Vice president of investor relations.”
Grace stared at him.
She had known Lauren was a colleague.
Not her exact position.
Lucas spoke.
“She had access to financing files.”
Grace whispered, “So the woman sleeping with my husband may also have helped forge documents using my money.”
Daniel’s voice was controlled.
“We will find out.”
Grace looked at the signature again.
Something strange caught her attention.
A tiny loop in the G.
She had seen it before.
Not in her own handwriting.
Somewhere else.
Then memory struck.
Christmas cards.
Birthday notes.
A bridal shower gift tag.
Lauren’s handwriting.
Grace’s eyes lifted slowly.
“I know who signed this.”
The three brothers looked at her.
May you like
Grace held up the page.
“Lauren did.”
