Chapter 4 - Wyatt Had a Key He Wasn’t Supposed to HaveThe executive archive occupied a secure floor inside Reed Development’s headquarters.
Contracts.
Property deeds.
Private investor agreements.
Old board minutes.
Copies of Everett Reed’s estate documents.
Wyatt’s access had been revoked sixteen months earlier after he resigned from the board during a screaming match with Landon.
So there was no innocent reason for the keycard in his pocket.
Landon turned it over.
The card carried someone else’s name.
MELANIE REED.
He stared.
“What?”
Melanie closed her eyes.
Wyatt said:
“It isn’t what you think.”
Landon almost laughed.
“You were in my closet twenty minutes ago.”
He held up the card.
“I’m beginning to think that sentence should be banned from this house.”
Melanie moved closer.
“It’s an old card.”
“No.”
Landon looked at the issue date.
“Three months ago.”
She stopped.
“Why do you have executive archive access?”
“I don’t.”
“Your name is on it.”
“I didn’t request it.”
Landon looked at Wyatt.
“You did?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Neither answered.
Landon opened his phone.
The company’s internal security application allowed him to check credentials.
He entered the card number.
Active.
Created ninety-four days earlier.
Requested by—
Landon stared.
His own executive account.
“That’s impossible.”
Wyatt’s face tightened.
Melanie whispered:
“Landon…”
He looked up.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t create it.”
“Someone used my login.”
Silence.
He understood.
His home office.
His laptop.
The password manager.
Melanie had access to the house.
Wyatt had access to Melanie.
“How?”
Melanie cried.
“I didn’t know what he was doing.”
Wyatt snapped:
“Don’t.”
She turned.
“I’m done protecting you.”
“You think throwing me under the bus saves you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Landon watched them.
“Start from the beginning.”
Melanie looked at him.
“Three months ago, Wyatt asked me to get something from your office.”
“What?”
“Your old father’s estate file.”
“Why?”
“He said Dad had changed the will before he died.”
Wyatt interrupted:
“He did.”
Landon looked at him.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“We have the final will.”
“You have the version the attorneys filed.”
“What does that mean?”
Wyatt stepped closer.
“Dad told me six weeks before he died that he was reconsidering the company split.”
Landon stared.
“He told you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew fifty-one percent to you was too much.”
Landon almost smiled.
“That sounds exactly like what you wanted to hear.”
Wyatt’s expression hardened.
“He said he wanted equal control.”
“Our father spent twenty years telling us equal control would destroy the company.”
“People change their minds.”
“Then where is the revised will?”
“That’s what I was trying to find.”
Landon looked at Melanie.
“So you gave him my password.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“What did you give him?”
“Nothing at first.”
“At first.”
Melanie swallowed.
“He said the archive might contain a draft.”
“And?”
“I told him I wouldn’t help.”
Wyatt laughed.
“You helped eventually.”
Melanie looked at him with hatred now.
“Because you told me Landon had cheated on me.”
Landon stared.
“What?”
Wyatt’s face changed.
Melanie continued.
“He showed me messages.”
Landon looked at his brother.
“What messages?”
“From your phone.”
“I never cheated.”
“I know that now.”
Melanie was crying again.
“He showed me screenshots from a woman named Sabrina.”
Landon’s confusion deepened.
“Sabrina Cole?”
Melanie nodded.
“She’s an attorney.”
“I know.”
“She handled the Nashville acquisition.”
“I know.”
“There was nothing between us.”
“I know now.”
Landon looked at Wyatt.
“You fabricated messages?”
Wyatt said nothing.
Melanie continued.
“He made it look like you were meeting her in hotels.”
Landon’s anger shifted.
Not reduced.
Changed.
“And you believed him?”
“You were never home.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I was lonely.”
“Still not an answer.”
“I believed what matched what I already feared.”
That was honest enough to hurt.
Landon looked at Wyatt.
“So you convince my wife I’m cheating.”
“I didn’t force her into anything.”
“No. You just manufactured evidence.”
Wyatt’s jaw tightened.
“You think she climbed into bed with me because of screenshots?”
Melanie slapped him.
The sound shocked all three.
Wyatt looked at her.
Melanie’s hand shook.
“You told me you loved me.”
“I did.”
“Then why lie?”
“Because you never would’ve left him otherwise.”
Landon closed his eyes briefly.
There was something almost unbearable about listening to them discuss the mechanics of destroying his marriage.
He forced himself back to the card.
“And the archive?”
Melanie spoke.
“After the first time…”
She could barely say it.
“Wyatt told me he needed proof about the will.”
“So you helped.”
“I gave him the login code when your authentication text came through.”
Landon stared.
“You had my phone.”
“You were showering.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“And this card was created.”
“Yes.”
“Have you used it?”
Wyatt answered:
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“Four.”
“To search estate records?”
“Yes.”
“Only?”
Wyatt hesitated.
Landon saw it.
“Only?”
“No.”
“What else?”
Wyatt looked at Melanie.
She appeared genuinely confused.
“What else did you access?”
Wyatt ignored her.
Landon stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
“There are transactions in Reed Development that don’t make sense.”
“What transactions?”
“Land purchases.”
“That narrows it down to our entire business.”
“Companies connected to Dad.”
“Our father is dead.”
“Exactly.”
Landon stared.
Wyatt reached into his jacket.
Slowly.
Landon tensed.
Wyatt pulled out his phone.
He opened a photograph.
A scanned bank transfer.
Everett Reed’s signature.
Eight million dollars.
Transferred three days before his death.
Recipient:
ORCHARD HOLDINGS LLC.
Landon frowned.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“I hadn’t either.”
Wyatt swiped.
Another transfer.
Five million.
Then three.
All within six months before Everett died.
“Where did this come from?”
“The archive.”
Landon looked at him.
“You used my wife and stole access to my company to investigate Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Why not tell me?”
Wyatt laughed bitterly.
“Because you would’ve called me jealous.”
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised Landon.
Wyatt continued.
“I thought Dad had hidden money because he planned to cut me out entirely.”
“But?”
“But Orchard Holdings doesn’t belong to him.”
“Who owns it?”
Wyatt looked toward Melanie.
Then Landon.
“I don’t know.”
Landon studied the documents.
His betrayal had just developed another room.
He didn’t want another room.
He wanted one horrible answer.
My wife cheated with my brother.
Painful.
Simple.
Instead, Wyatt had apparently used the affair to access financial records their father had hidden.
And Melanie had helped him do it.
Landon lowered the phone.
“Eli is waiting downstairs.”
Melanie looked toward the door.
Landon continued.
“I’m taking him tonight.”
She nodded weakly.
“Tomorrow morning, we meet at the house.”
“For what?”
“A full explanation.”
Wyatt shook his head.
“I’m not coming.”
Landon looked at him.
“Yes, you are.”
“Why?”
“Because if Orchard Holdings is real, then tomorrow we find out what Dad was hiding.”
May you like
He glanced at Melanie.
“And after that, I decide how much of my life the two of you have already stolen.”
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