Chapter 2 - THE LETTER WRITTEN BEFORE THE ENGAGEMENT.
Claire lunged for the envelope, but Ethan picked it up first.
“That belongs to me,” she snapped.
Lily stepped behind her father.
“Mom said it belonged to the truth.”
The letter had been written by Ethan’s late wife, Anna, three weeks before her death. She warned that Claire had repeatedly asked about Lily’s custody, inheritance and legal residence inside the mansion.
Claire laughed sharply.
“Anna was jealous and sick. She knew you would eventually marry someone capable of managing this family.”
Ethan’s eyes hardened.
“She was dying, and you were measuring her daughter’s bedroom.”
The letter included a copy of a proposed guardianship agreement. If Lily stopped living at the mansion before Ethan remarried, control of her trust would transfer to his new spouse.
Claire called it ordinary estate planning.
Lily whispered, “She told me boarding school would make everyone happier.”
May you like
Then Ethan noticed Claire’s signature beneath the guardianship proposal.
It had been dated two months before he ever met her.
