Chapter 4 - Secrets in the Shadows
The first week in Milan passed in a blur of settling in and exploring. The children adapted quickly, their resilience a gift I was endlessly grateful for. Ethan made friends with a boy in the neighborhood park, and Sophie started Italian lessons, chattering away in a mix of English and her new favorite words. For the first time in years, there was no tension in our home, no walking on eggshells, no waiting for Jason’s temper or his indifference.
But I didn’t let myself get too comfortable. I knew Jason. I knew his pride, his need to control everything and everyone around him. He wouldn’t accept defeat quietly. He’d come for us, or he’d come for the assets, or he’d try to destroy me to save himself. I needed to be ready.
I began going through the documents Dawson had given me more carefully, cross-referencing names and dates and figures. The more I looked, the more I found. The shell companies weren’t just hiding Jason’s personal spending—they were moving money in and out of the Carter family’s main business, Carter Enterprises. Large sums that appeared and disappeared, payments to people who had no official connection to the company, transactions that seemed designed to avoid taxes or hide profits.
I remembered Eleanor once telling me, “Smart wives know when to stay quiet.” At the time, I’d thought she was talking about Jason’s affair. Now I wondered if she’d been warning me about much more. The Carter family’s wealth and reputation weren’t just built on hard work and good business sense. They were built on secrets, on carefully constructed lies, on deals made in the shadows.
One name kept appearing in the records: Marcus Voss. He was listed as a consultant, a business partner, an advisor in different places, but his name popped up again and again around the most questionable transactions. I did some research—he was a man with a reputation for getting things done, no matter the cost, a man who had ties to powerful people all over the world. And he seemed to have a very long and very close relationship with the Carter family.
Then I found something that made my blood run cold. Eleven years earlier, around the time Jason and I got married, there had been a sudden, massive injection of capital into Carter Enterprises. It had saved the company from what looked like imminent collapse, turning a potential disaster into the foundation of their current success. The source of that money was listed only as “overseas investors,” but the trail led back to the same shell companies, the same patterns, the same connection to Marcus Voss.
Jason had always told me the company turned around because of his father’s brilliant leadership. He’d painted a picture of a family that had pulled itself up through talent and determination. It was another lie. Everything he’d ever told me about his family, their legacy, their success—it was all built on something hidden, something that could ruin them if it ever came to light.
In Chicago, Jason was also digging. He’d hired private investigators to find out everything they could about me, about Dawson, about what I knew and what I planned to do. He’d also started asking questions around the company, questions that made his father, Richard, and his mother, Eleanor, increasingly nervous.
“Why are you digging into old records?” Richard asked him one evening over dinner, his voice sharp. “The past is the past. We need to focus on moving forward, on repairing the damage you’ve done.”
“The damage I’ve done?” Jason shot back. “I just found out Nicole’s baby isn’t mine, I signed away my rights to my children and half my assets because I was an idiot, and my ex-wife is in Italy with God knows what kind of evidence against us. And you’re telling me not to ask questions?”
Eleanor’s face was tight. “There are things, Jason, that are better left buried. Things that protect this family, that protect everything we’ve built. You don’t need to understand them. You just need to trust that they were necessary.”
“Necessary for what?” Jason demanded. “For us to pretend we’re something we’re not? For us to lie to everyone, even each other?”
May you like
He stormed out of the room, but his parents’ reaction only confirmed his suspicions. There were secrets, big ones, and I was getting closer to them. He realized then that this wasn’t just about his divorce or his children anymore. This was about the survival of his family’s name and everything they owned. If I exposed what I found, the Carter dynasty would fall.
And he knew, with a sickening certainty, that I wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger if he pushed me too far.
