Chapter 3 - Why Sloane Chose HimGraham first met Sloane Harrow at a charity auction.
At least, that was what he believed.
Rebecca destroyed that illusion forty-eight hours later.
She recovered internal correspondence through documents Voss Dynamics already legally possessed from failed joint ventures with Harrow Capital.
One email was seven years old.
Conrad to Sloane:
Voss will attend the Mercer gala Thursday. Make sure you meet him.
Another:
Do not discuss Bellamy. Not yet.
Graham read the sentence three times.
Sloane had known.
Long before their first date.
Long before she claimed she had never heard his name before.
Rebecca continued.
“There’s more.”
Conrad’s firm had spent years buying interests related to old Bellamy assets.
Not the main company.
That had been broken apart decades earlier.
But land.
Royalties.
Minority holdings.
Trust rights.
One asset remained unreachable.
The Bellamy Heritage Trust.
“Who controls it?”
Graham asked.
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
“No single person.”
“Beneficiaries?”
“One currently recognized beneficiary line remains.”
“Whose?”
She slid a document toward him.
DESCENDANTS OF JULIAN AUGUST BELLAMY.
Graham stared.
“So me.”
“Potentially.”
“Potentially?”
“Your biological connection has never been legally established inside the trust.”
Graham almost laughed.
“Convenient.”
The trust was worth approximately $1.7 billion.
But Graham barely reacted to the number.
“What does Conrad want?”
“Control.”
The trust owned minority stakes in several valuable companies and enormous tracts of land.
Conrad had spent fifteen years acquiring neighboring interests.
If he could influence the Bellamy trust, he could consolidate assets worth several billion more.
“How does Sloane marrying me help?”
Rebecca explained.
Marriage alone would not give her control.
But Conrad’s lawyers had prepared documents.
Prenuptial agreements.
Estate planning.
Joint investment structures.
A proposed “family management company.”
Buried inside were provisions that would have allowed Harrow Capital to manage certain assets Graham acquired through inheritance or trust distributions.
Graham felt physically sick.
“I never signed those.”
“No.”
“You were scheduled to discuss them next month.”
After the wedding venue had been booked.
After media announced the families’ union.
After Graham’s companies began joining Harrow projects.
Rebecca added:
“I don’t think Sloane expected the Bellamy issue to surface this early.”
Neither did Graham.
He called Sloane.
She answered immediately.
“Graham.”
“Did you know August Bellamy was my grandfather?”
Silence.
That was enough.
“How long?”
“Graham—”
“How long?”
“Before we met.”
He closed his eyes.
“Was any of it real?”
Another silence.
Then:
“Yes.”
He laughed bitterly.
“That was not the question.”
“I know.”
She started crying.
“My father asked me to meet you.”
“But he didn’t make me fall in love with you.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because every year I waited made telling you worse.”
Graham thought of the party.
Sloane striking Marianne.
Ordering her to kneel.
His guests laughing.
“What happened three nights ago?”
Sloane went silent.
“You knew she was Marianne Voss.”
“You knew she was the woman who had Julian Bellamy’s child.”
“Yes.”
“And you slapped her anyway.”
“She insulted my father.”
“No.”
Graham’s voice became quiet.
“She refused to sign the document Conrad sent.”
Sloane stopped breathing.
There it was.
Marianne had never told Graham.
Before the party, Conrad had approached her privately.
He offered a settlement.
Twenty million dollars.
In exchange, Marianne would sign a statement claiming Graham was not Julian Bellamy’s son.
Graham felt rage returning.
“What did she say?”
Sloane whispered:
“She laughed at him.”
Of course she had.
“And then?”
“My father told me she was trying to destroy everything.”
“So you humiliated her.”
“I was angry.”
“You hit my mother.”
Sloane began crying harder.
“I know.”
Graham answered:
“No.”
“I don’t think you do.”
He ended the call.
Then his phone rang again.
Conrad.
Graham answered.
Conrad did not apologize.
He said:
“If you pursue the Bellamy trust, you will destroy your mother.”
Graham looked toward Marianne’s closed bedroom door.
“What does that mean?”
Conrad answered:
May you like
“Ask her what happened the night Julian died.”
Then he hung up.
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