Chapter 3

That afternoon, Edgar projected the financial records onto the wall.

Over the past six months, using the wedding as his excuse, Terry had copied the supplier list three separate times.

Kathleen's inbox had received our new-product pricing.

The worst of it was the Four Seasons Stop project.

That was the city public-garden contract Lantern had been chasing for two years, and Terry had gone and set up a meeting with the investors on behalf of his own company.

"He wants to swap you out of the project," Edgar said.

I stared at the forwarding log. "Kathleen took the second draft of the proposal."

"That version wasn't the final one."

Edgar clicked on the file's footer, and a faint string of numbers surfaced.

"Every outgoing version has a different marker. Whoever she handed it to, whatever slide it ends up on in the meeting, one check and we'll know."

The words from the cold-storage room came back to me all at once.

Terry hadn't acted on impulse.

He'd planned all along to marry me first, then use the name of jointly running the business as a married couple to swallow my brand whole, and push Kathleen up as the one in charge.

I was just the most convenient stepping stone he had.

"Is it enough to go to the police?"

"Right now it's only enough for a lawyer's letter," Edgar said. "If you want them to hand the evidence to us themselves, don't tip them off."

He slid another document across.

It was the list of equity and trademark permissions.

"I've already dropped my management access down to the same level as finance. You can shut it off on your own at any time."

I froze. "I never doubted you."

"You just got stabbed by the person you trusted most. Nobody has the right to ask you to trust anyone unconditionally right now."

My throat went tight.

Terry always used to say love meant there was no line between what was yours and what was mine.

So he took my clients, went through my books, said yes to my family's arrangements on my behalf.

Edgar, though, was putting everything that could give me control back into my hands, one piece at a time.

"The wedding goes ahead as planned." I closed the file. "I'll put Kathleen in the wedding dress, and make Terry admit with his own mouth that she's the bride."

"And then?"

"And then I take back my shop, my name, and these seven years."

Edgar was quiet for a few seconds.

"Evelyn, you can't get the seven years back. But every year after this one is yours."