Chapter 10 - Daniel Draws the Line
Two days later, the divorce petition was filed.
Daniel had retained the fiercest family law practice in London. The grounds were fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and marriage under false pretenses. Because Sophie had concealed massive financial liabilities and fraudulent corporate activities, the prenuptial agreement she had insisted upon was rendered null and void.
I met Daniel at his solicitor's office in Mayfair to finalize the affidavit regarding the wedding day expenses.
Daniel looked lighter. The crushing weight of deceit that had hung over his shoulders since the wedding had lifted, replaced by a quiet, determined resolve.
"She called me fifty times yesterday," Daniel told me as we sat in the firm's private garden. "She offered to go to therapy. She promised she would donate her personal savings to charity. She even blamed Eleanor, saying her mother forced her to be perfect."
"Do you believe her?" I asked.
Daniel smiled faintly, shaking his head. "I spent two years believing her, Maya. When Emma showed me that text message at the reception, the scales fell from my eyes. Sophie doesn't love anyone. She collects people. She collected me because of my family’s name, and she kept you around because she needed your brain."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet pouch, setting it on the iron garden table.
"What is that?" I asked.
"My wedding ring," he said. "And something else. When I went back to the penthouse to collect my belongings, Sophie had already cleared out her jewelry box. But she left this behind in the bottom drawer of her desk. It was inside a locked leather binder marked *Family Estate - Confidential*."
Daniel pushed a set of folded, yellowed parchment documents toward me.
"What are these?" I asked, picking them up.
"Read them," Daniel said softly. "It turns out, Maya... the speeches weren't the first thing your mother and sister stole from you."
My fingers tightened around the brittle paper. As I opened the first page, the official seal of the High Court of Justice, Family Division, stared back at me.
May you like
The document was dated twelve years ago. It was the Last Will and Testament of our paternal grandmother, Beatrice Bennett.
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