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“On our wedding night he held a knife to my throat and told me he’d bleed me of every cent my father left me. He told me about his relationship with my mother in detail. And he told me how my mother had sold him her shares of the company and that some of the papers he’d had me sign had given him access to different accounts. He drained those accounts to pay my mother for her shares. He told me it was only a matter of time before he had my shares too, and if he had to kill me to get them then so be it.”
“God, Hattie,” Duncan said.
“Harriet is my real name,” she told him. “Harriet Ashbury-Bancroft. My friends call me Hattie.”
Her throat was dry as dust, but she pushed on. “It took me three days to be able to move after our wedding night because he beat me so badly. But I managed to escape and call Atticus from a phone at a restaurant. He happened to have agents not too far away and they were able to abstract me and get me back to the States.”
“I’d already started doing a deep check on her mother and Derek as beneficiaries during the will reading,” Atticus said. “And I figured I would probably end up a target too since I’m the other equal shareholder.
“I’d already had my attorneys at Dynamis gather all the information on the trusts and anything the board had implemented during Harry’s illness. Harry was no dummy in how he’d set up his succession plan. Even with us having equal shares, Hattie would remain the president of the company in Harry’s stead and not even the board could remove her. She had full control of the trusts, accounts, and property under the umbrella of the company, and as president, Hattie would be allowed to claim dividends at the end of every year. Names could be added and the dividends split up in different ways if she chose, but they could never be transferred outright. If anything ever happened to Hattie the funds would be frozen and then given to the beneficiaries listed in her will.
“Derek would have known about that clause, which was why he changed tactics and decided to terrorize her instead of kill her. Derek is a very powerful attorney. No judge or law enforcement agency in New York would cross him, and he has so many judges in his pocket the idea of forging documents and signatures isn’t out of the question. Which is why I had Hattie file her will and estate papers in Connecticut.”
“They were trying to kill you?” Duncan asked. “Your own mother?”
“It was only partly about the money for her,” Hattie said. “But it was the power and control she’d have over my life and death that really appealed to her. When my mother and Derek found out that my death wouldn’t give them what they wanted, they changed tactics. Derek found a judge who agreed that as my husband, he had the legal right to take over as conservator of my shares and position in the company if I was incapacitated or mentally unstable. That’s when the torture started.
“He started spreading rumors about my deep depression and all the medication I was taking. He drugged me once with sleeping pills and then staged it to look like I’d tried to commit suicide. He called 911 and left the pill bottle on the floor beside me. There wasn’t an overdose amount in my system—he didn’t want to take the chance of killing me—but it didn’t matter. The press got hold of the story and that’s pretty much how the system works now. If the media says it, it must be true. Guilty until proven innocent.
“When the suicide attempt story didn’t accomplish his goal he started hiring men to watch me. I’d see them everywhere. Standing behind my car when I was leaving work. Or looking through the window of my house. I started jumping every time I turned a corner. I thought I was going crazy.”
“Anyone would,” Duncan said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“The only way I could keep her safe and get her away was to fake her death,” Atticus said. “So that’s what I did. Hattie Ashbury-Bancroft died in a car crash, and her will is tied up in a probate court in Connecticut for a year, despite Derek’s attempts to get it moved to New York. As an equal shareholder, I’ve been able to block the board from putting Derek at the helm until the year has passed and my investigation is complete. We have enough on him and Hattie’s mother to put them away for a long time.”
There was silence for several minutes as the information sunk in.
“That’s good,” Duncan said, looking at Atticus and getting to his feet. “I can see why you brought her here. And it’s good that she’s had a sanctuary all this time. There’s only one problem that I can see.”
“Yeah,” Atticus said, sympathy in his tone.
And then Duncan looked at her and she saw the hurt and anger in his eyes. “You’re married to someone else.”
“I know,” she told him. “And I don’t know how to fix this. Because if things had been different, I would have said yes to you that day at the diner when you told me I’d be your wife. I love you. That hasn’t changed.”
Duncan stared at her for a few seconds, and then he turned around and walked out of the room.
ChapterThirteen
Hattie hadto give the O’Haras credit. What was talked about in the network, stayed in the network. She’d never felt more like an outsider than in the three weeks following Duncan’s proposal.
She’d wanted to be angry or feel sorry for herself. If he’d only waited to propose until after she and Atticus had a chance to talk to him. But it was her fault and she could blame no one but herself for the way things played out. Even though she wouldn’t have done things any differently.
She’d had no choice but to escape New York and Derek. But what she should have done was keep Duncan and his family at arm’s length. Butshould havesdid no one any good. Her desire for family had ultimately outweighed her common sense.
It had definitely been a birthday to remember. Duncan had saved an embarrassing situation for both of them by telling his family to keep celebrating, but that it was best he take Hattie home since she wasn’t feeling well.
And that’s exactly what he’d done. He’d driven her to the lake house on Tribulation Pass, walked her to the door to make sure she got inside okay, and then he’d turned around and left. That was when the dam had finally broken and the tears came.
Why did she let things go on like they had? She’d known it would come to this. She’d known there was nothing that could be done without alerting Derek that she was still alive. And she’d been too terrified to think of that as an option.
Hattie wasn’t sure what to expect the following day, but Atticus had shown up at her door and told he was flying to New York and that everything was in place. By the end of the week Derek would be indicted on everything from fraud and money laundering to racketeering and attempted murder.
Atticus had the foresight to call her just before the news broke of Derek’s arrest and the fact that she was still alive. And despite the fact Laurel Valley was in high ski season and the resorts were crammed with tourists, several industrious reporters showed up to get the scoop, hunting her down at the sporting goods store and trying to camp out on O’Hara land, which didn’t turn out well for them.
Laurel Valley took care of their own, and they’d protected her, despite the hurt she’d caused. She’d taken a couple of weeks off from the store to lie low, but she still had to buy groceries and other necessities. The reporters were always waiting for her, and she’d gotten pretty good at keeping her foot on the pedal when they intentionally stepped in front of her car.
She’d have to go back to New York and testify. She’d have to face Derek and her mother. But that was for another day and time. It could be months before Derek was brought to trial. Atticus had been able to untangle her death in ways that she’d never understand, but for now, she and Atticus were majority shareholders of her father’s company, and all of the assets she’d been left from his estate were back in the trust where they belonged until she turned thirty-five. Derek’s third of the company would revert to her mother since he obtained the shares illegally, and her mother’s third would be frozen until a judge could determine the best course of action moving forward. She couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.
