Chapter 10: The Weight of Choice
The days after the wedding passed in a strange, suspended state.
I stayed at Adrian’s house, moving between silence and long conversations with Margaret and David Lang. Every morning, new documents arrived — financial reports, legal filings, and internal communications from Mercer Manufacturing. Every evening, I read through them until my eyes burned.
Adrian gave me space, but he never left me completely alone. He would sit nearby while I worked, sometimes reading, sometimes simply watching me with quiet patience.
On the fourth day, Margaret came to the house with an update.
“Your father has been formally charged with fraud and misappropriation of pension funds,” she said. “Vanessa is facing lesser charges — conspiracy and falsifying documents. They’ve both been released on bail, but their passports have been confiscated.”
I nodded slowly, staring out the window.
“What about my mother?” I asked.
Margaret hesitated.
“She hasn’t been charged yet. She claims she had no knowledge of the financial crimes. However, she was present when Daniel assaulted you, and there are multiple witnesses who heard her encourage him. We can still press charges if you want to.”
I was quiet for a long time.
Finally, I said, “I don’t want to send her to prison. But I also don’t want her to walk away like nothing happened.”
Margaret nodded, understanding.
“We can pursue civil charges against her,” she suggested. “It won’t send her to jail, but it will hold her financially and legally accountable.”
I agreed.
That night, Adrian found me sitting on the terrace again. He handed me a glass of water and sat beside me without speaking.
After a while, I said, “I keep thinking about what comes next. The company… the employees… everything my father built on lies.”
Adrian looked at me.
“What do you want to do with it?”
I had been asking myself that question for days.
“I don’t want to run it,” I admitted. “But I also don’t want to sell it to people who might do the same thing my father did. I want to make sure the people who worked there for years are protected. Especially the ones who lost money in the pension fund.”
Adrian nodded.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” he said simply.
He reached over and took my hand.
“You don’t have to carry this alone, Claire. I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere.”
May you like
I squeezed his hand.
For the first time since the wedding, I believed him.
