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“As you know, your father left a will,” Chris said.
“Yes.” I vaguely remember him mentioning it before. “You said something about him mentioning it in the letter.”
“Yeah. Actually, the letter contained most of what he gave you in the will. That’s why I ripped it up.” I frowned at him as he continued, “Because for my plan to work and for me to convince you to marry me, you couldn’t know the main contents of the will.”
“What do you mean?” I repeated.
“Your father and I started a business years ago, the one that became Revit Renewables. You already knew that part. But what you didn’t know was that he owned the largest share.”
When he said that, my eyes bugged out. “What?”I exclaimed.
Chris nodded. “At first, neither of us had much faith in the business, but I figured there was no harm in loaning him a few thousand dollars to get it started. He gave me about 15 percent of the shares as a result, and I told him to keep my name out of everything because I knew if I didn’t, the police would come snooping around real soon. I knew his idea had potential, but I couldn’t invest more without triggering my family’s interest. And as I said, I wanted that to be my one way out from under their grasp.”
“Okay…” I was still trying to wrap my head around what he was saying. My dad partially owned Revit Renewables?
“But suddenly, the company started growing and then exploding with profits,” he continued. “It was almost crazy how quickly it grew. The big shots came knocking, and your dad ended up selling about 45 percent of his shares, leaving him with whatever was left of it. Then, he willed whatever shares he had left to you.”
I blinked at him, not understanding what he was trying to say.
He shook his head and further explained, “Meaning you are the majority shareholder. Your father’s shares, now your shares, are worth millions of dollars. I married you so I could get my hands on those shares and have controlling access.”
I gaped as the shock hit me. “Wait. You did all this to steal from me?”
“Yes,” he admitted without apology.
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I was still stuck on the news of my father’s wealth that I couldn’t even process what he was saying.
“Why didn’t he ever send me anything?” I wondered, feeling some emotion build up when I thought about all the times I needed money. Times I had to steal and scam to get by. “My dad, that is. If he was so rich, why did he never help us out?”
Chris shrugged. “I don’t know. He never told me. I guessed he tried and got rebuffed by your mother or something. But that’s not the point. The point is that this whole time, I have kept up the lie and tricked you in order to steal what is rightfully yours.”
I was slowly grasping that part too. And as upsetting as it should be to me, it just…wasn’t? I mean, I pretty much expected that there was more to what he was doing in the first place, and this just confirmed it.
Although, he was right in that it did make me doubt whatever feelings he said he had for me.
Was he saying all this just so I would continue the marriage and he could access my shares?
“Why are you telling me this?” I questioned.
“So you know what type of man I am,” he responded casually. “So you know I was willing to use you to get what I wanted. I didn’t care how it hurt you.”
“You wanted to steal my money.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you sign the contract leaving me with half our joint shares in the event of our divorce?” I remember seeing that line in the documents I signed and being confused by it. “Was that a lie too?”
He thought about it, then shook his head.
“Then why did you do that? Why didn’t you use the contract to take everything?”
He shrugged carelessly. “I didn’t want you to be completely penniless.”
That didn’t make sense. If he was going to steal from me anyway, why not go all the way? I wouldn’t have even missed money I didn’t know I had.
“We’d have to be married for some time for me to get to keep your shares,” he clarified. “Right now, if you divorced me, you get to keep everything, and you can leave me without any consequences.”
“What about the Moranos?”
