Chapter 9 - Adrian Had Promised Two Women Two Different FuturesRosalie stared at the ring.
Large.
Elegant.
Expensive.
Exactly Adrian's taste.
Not hers.
He had learned early that Rosalie preferred simple jewelry.
Sienna clearly didn't.
"When?"
Rosalie asked.
"Six weeks ago."
"Where?"
"Napa."
Rosalie remembered the trip.
Adrian had described it as a lender retreat.
He'd returned with a bottle of wine for Rosalie.
She nearly laughed at the memory.
"Did you accept?"
Sienna nodded.
"Obviously."
"Did you know we were still sleeping together?"
Sienna flinched.
Rosalie continued:
"Did you know he took me to dinner for our anniversary three weeks ago?"
"No."
"Did you know we were discussing a trip to Italy next spring?"
"No."
"Did you know he was trying to convince me to have another child last year?"
Sienna's face changed completely.
"No."
Rosalie watched her.
That one landed.
Apparently Adrian had constructed two futures.
One with Sienna.
One with Rosalie.
Or perhaps neither was real.
Maren crossed her arms.
"Why would he propose if he wasn't ready to leave?"
Sienna looked toward Rosalie.
"He said timing depended on the company restructure."
There.
Always the company.
Rosalie leaned back.
"The restructure that diluted my shares."
"I didn't know that was what it did."
"But you knew there was a restructure."
"Yes."
"And you knew Aster Ridge was receiving Blackwell contracts."
"Yes."
"And you'd get thirty percent of Aster Ridge."
Sienna's eyes filled.
"I know how it sounds."
"It sounds exactly like what it is."
Sienna nodded.
"I thought he was moving new business into a company we would build after the divorce."
"Using existing Blackwell clients?"
"He said they were his relationships."
Rosalie laughed once.
"Adrian believes everything he touches becomes his."
That included people.
Sienna.
The company.
Rosalie's inheritance.
Possibly Lily's future.
Rosalie pushed the ring back.
"Keep it."
Sienna didn't move.
"I don't want anything he gave you."
Sienna closed the box.
"There's more."
"Of course."
She opened a folder on her phone.
A draft divorce petition.
Rosalie's name.
Adrian's name.
Prepared five months earlier.
Rosalie read.
Irretrievable breakdown.
Separate bedrooms.
Marital relationship ended approximately eighteen months earlier.
Rosalie's hands tightened.
They had not had separate bedrooms.
Not even close.
The document portrayed Adrian as primary financial provider and Rosalie as minimally involved in business matters.
That part was technically true.
Then she reached custody.
Adrian proposed joint legal custody.
Primary physical residence with Rosalie.
Reasonable parenting time.
For a moment, Rosalie felt relief.
Then Sienna said:
"Keep reading."
An updated draft.
Prepared three weeks ago.
This version described concerns about Rosalie's "emotional volatility."
Rosalie stared.
"What?"
Sienna looked ashamed.
"He started asking me to document things."
"What things?"
"Times you called during meetings."
Rosalie laughed in disbelief.
"I called my husband."
"I know."
"Times I sounded upset?"
Sienna nodded.
"About what?"
"Mostly Lily."
Doctor appointments.
School issues.
One time Rosalie called repeatedly because Lily had been vomiting and Adrian didn't answer.
He later apologized.
Apparently someone had turned those calls into evidence.
"Did you document them?"
Sienna whispered:
"Yes."
Rosalie looked away.
That hurt more than she expected.
Not because Sienna had helped an affair.
Because she'd helped build a file against a mother.
Sienna began crying.
"I thought you were unstable."
"Because Adrian told you."
"Yes."
"And you never wondered why an unstable woman was apparently trusted to raise his daughter every day while he traveled?"
Sienna closed her eyes.
"I should have."
"Yes."
Silence.
Then Rosalie noticed something on the updated petition.
Date.
Three weeks ago.
The same week Adrian showed Rosalie the necklace photograph.
The same week he took her to dinner and said:
"I don't know what I'd do without you."
He had been building two endings simultaneously.
Rosalie looked at Sienna.
"Why give me this?"
"Because he called me tonight."
"What did he want?"
"The files."
"Anything else?"
Sienna hesitated.
"He said if you accuse him of fraud, he'll say you approved everything."
Rosalie felt cold.
"He forged my signature."
Sienna's face changed.
"What?"
"You didn't know?"
"No."
Rosalie believed her reaction.
Sienna stood.
"Adrian told me you signed the restructuring consent."
"I didn't."
Sienna whispered a curse.
Then something else occurred to Rosalie.
"You scanned my signature."
Sienna looked at her.
"From which document?"
"What?"
"The email said use the existing signature page."
Sienna became pale.
"I thought he meant attach your previously signed consent."
"Which document?"
Sienna's breathing changed.
"The lake house refinancing."
Rosalie froze.
Her family's lake house.
Property inherited from her grandmother.
Separate property.
Adrian had asked her to sign paperwork eighteen months earlier, saying it updated insurance and title records.
Rosalie suddenly remembered the envelope.
She had signed three places at the kitchen counter while making Lily breakfast.
"What exactly did I sign?"
Sienna whispered:
"I don't know."
Rosalie felt dread deepen.
May you like
Because if Adrian had used that signature for company documents—
what else had he used the original paperwork to authorize?
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