My Husband Slapped Me At The Hospital… Then My Father Did Something Nobody Expected. Chapt
Chapter 3
Daniel Brooks did not open the folder immediately.
Instead, he locked the hospital room door.
Emily noticed.
“Why did you lock it?”
“Because what I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room.”
Thomas nodded weakly.
Daniel placed his phone face down on the table.
“Your father suspected that someone was monitoring him.”
Emily felt a chill.
“Monitoring him?”
“His emails. His financial accounts. Possibly his phone.”
Thomas whispered, “And now yours.”
Emily stared at him.
“My phone?”
Daniel nodded.
“We don’t know how extensive it is.”
Emily immediately reached for her phone.
Daniel stopped her.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“If someone has access to it, changing anything could alert them.”
Emily slowly placed it on the table.
Her mind raced.
“Who is doing this?”
Daniel opened the folder.
Inside were photographs, bank records, property documents, and printed emails.
There were also photographs of Ryan.
Emily’s stomach twisted.
One picture showed Ryan entering a downtown Chicago office building.
Another showed him meeting a man she had never seen.
The date was six months earlier.
“Who is that?”
Daniel looked at the photograph.
“Victor Hale.”
Emily stared.
“The man Dad mentioned?”
“Yes.”
She looked at her father.
“You told me he disappeared.”
“I believed he had.”
Daniel turned another page.
“Victor Hale was once Thomas’s business partner.”
Emily listened.
Twenty-five years ago, Thomas and Victor had built a construction company together.
Thomas handled operations.
Victor handled finance.
The company grew quickly.
Then Thomas discovered millions of dollars were missing.
He confronted Victor.
Victor denied everything.
Within months, the partnership collapsed.
Thomas bought Victor out.
Victor disappeared.
But apparently, he had never truly left.
“He spent years rebuilding his network,” Daniel explained.
“What network?”
“Real estate investors. shell companies. private lenders. people who specialize in acquiring distressed properties.”
Emily looked at her father’s property documents.
Her father’s land was surrounded by new developments.
The value had exploded.
Victor wanted it.
But why would he need Ryan?
Daniel answered before she could ask.
“Because your father put everything in your name.”
Emily froze.
“What?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Not everything.”
Daniel opened another document.
“Your father created a trust eight years ago.”
Emily read the first page.
Her name was there.
She was the sole beneficiary.
But there was something else.
A condition.
“What is this?”
Daniel said, “The trust cannot be transferred or sold without your father’s approval while he is alive.”
Emily exhaled.
“So Ryan couldn’t get the property.”
“Not legally.”
She stared at the photograph of Ryan and Victor.
“But why would Ryan marry me?”
Thomas’s eyes filled with pain.
“That is what I was afraid of.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
She stood.
“No. Ryan loved me.”
Daniel said nothing.
“Didn’t he?”
Silence.
Emily looked at her father.
“Dad?”
Thomas finally spoke.
“I wanted to believe he did.”
Her knees felt weak.
She sat again.
Then Daniel pulled out another document.
“This is from a private investigator.”
Emily read it.
Ryan had debts.
Large ones.
Gambling.
Private loans.
Unpaid credit cards.
And one payment.
$250,000.
Sent to an account connected to a company controlled by Victor Hale.
Emily’s hand trembled.
“He was paid?”
“Six months ago.”
“For marrying me?”
“We can’t prove that yet.”
Emily stared at the paper.
Six months.
That was exactly when Ryan had begun pushing her about her father’s property.
Exactly when he had started insisting they needed to move.
Exactly when he had become angry whenever she refused to discuss money.
Her father’s monitor beeped.
Thomas looked at her.
“I am sorry.”
Emily wiped her tears.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wanted to protect you.”
“You let me marry him.”
“I didn’t know.”
Daniel suddenly looked toward the locked door.
Someone was standing outside.
A shadow passed beneath it.
Everyone became silent.
Then the shadow disappeared.
Daniel opened the door.
Nobody was there.
But a small white envelope lay on the floor.
Daniel picked it up.
Inside was one sentence.
You should have let the old man die.
Emily’s blood ran cold.
Thomas stared at the note.
Daniel immediately called security.
But before he could finish, Thomas grabbed Emily’s wrist.
“Listen to me.”
She looked at him.
“If anything happens to me…”
His voice weakened.
“Do not trust Ryan.”
Emily nodded through tears.
Thomas squeezed her hand.
“And whatever happens…”
He looked directly into her eyes.
“Never give them the property.”
