Chapter 4 - A Crack in the Facade
The legal battle moved slowly, as all lawsuits do.
During the waiting period, I hired a private investigator.
If my mother and sister were going to dig into my life, I needed to know exactly who they were bringing into my orbit.
I asked the investigator to look into Olivia’s fiancé, Carter.
The results came back within a week, and they were absolutely shocking.
Carter was not a successful venture capitalist.
He was a con artist drowning in massive credit card debt.
His luxury cars were leased, his designer suits were rented, and he had multiple judgments against him for unpaid loans.
He was marrying Olivia because he believed the lies about her family's wealth.
He thought Olivia was his ticket to paying off his dangerous creditors.
And Olivia was marrying him because she thought he was a billionaire who would give her a life better than mine.
They were two parasites trying to feed off each other.
I sat in my office, staring at the financial reports the investigator had provided.
A part of me wanted to let them destroy each other.
They deserved the misery that was inevitably coming their way.
But another part of me remembered the little sister who used to hold my hand when we crossed the street as children.
Despite everything she had done to me, I struggled with the idea of letting her marry a complete fraud.
I discussed it with Mark that evening over dinner.
“If you tell her, she won’t believe you,” Mark warned me gently.
“She will think you are just trying to sabotage her happiness out of jealousy.”
I knew he was absolutely right.
My mother would spin it as a cruel manipulation tactic.
But I decided that my conscience required me to at least try.
May you like
I would give them the truth.
What they chose to do with it was no longer my responsibility.
