Grace covered Noah’s ears and led him several steps away.
Eleanor took a breath on the screen.
“I don’t know whether Nathan intends to harm you. I do know he has already begun building a record that makes you appear unstable.”
The drawer contained copies of emails between Nathan and a private family evaluator.
The messages described my grief as dangerous.
They said I drank heavily, forgot Noah’s medication, and became angry without warning.
None of it was true.
A petition had already been drafted asking the court to declare me emotionally unable to manage Noah’s inheritance.
The witness listed beneath the statement was Nathan Mercer.
The person who provided confidential information about my therapy appointments was Victoria.
They were not waiting for the wedding to begin stealing from Noah.
They had already begun trying to remove me from his life.
The police arrived while the video was still playing.
Victoria asked for a lawyer.
Then a black car entered the estate.
Nathan stepped out.
No one had called him.
He walked through the front door wearing the dark suit he had selected for my wedding.
When he saw the police, his eyes went first to Victoria.
Only then did he look at me.
“What happened?”
I placed the guardianship petition in front of him.
His signature appeared beneath a statement claiming I had become mentally unstable after Eleanor’s death.
“You were trying to take Noah from me.”
Nathan did not panic.
He looked almost disappointed.
“I was protecting him.”
“By inventing a psychiatric history?”
“You have not been yourself since Eleanor died.”
“I attend grief counseling.”
“You stopped going to the office.”
“I took care of my son.”
“You left the company exposed.”
There it was.
For Nathan, family and business had always occupied the same scale.
Any time I gave Noah more attention than Mercer Industries, Nathan described it as weakness.