Chapter 6 - CADEN'S OTHER FAMILY
The next betrayal came from a woman named Madison Reed.
She emailed Hannah.
I believe I have information relevant to Taylor Mercer's divorce.
I assumed affair.
I was right.
Partly.
Madison was thirty-one.
Commercial real-estate broker.
She and Caden had been seeing each other for eighteen months.
I expected devastation.
Instead, I felt tired.
Perhaps betrayal has a saturation point.
Then Madison said:
"He told me you were divorcing already."
Classic.
"He said the marriage was financial."
Closer to truth than he intended.
"He told me the house was his."
I laughed.
Madison looked embarrassed.
"He also told me the mansion across the street belonged to an investor he was negotiating with."
Of course.
"What else?"
She hesitated.
"I'm pregnant."
There it was.
Sixteen weeks.
Caden knew.
He had known before my Guadalajara trip.
I closed my eyes.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because Donovan was about to have a sibling born into chaos.
"Why are you telling me?"
Madison's eyes filled.
"Because yesterday he asked me to sign something."
She produced documents.
A partnership agreement.
Preston's company.
Caden wanted to move ownership interests into Madison's name.
Why?
To hide assets.
After the court's preservation order.
Hannah nearly smiled.
"May we copy these?"
"Yes."
Madison looked at me.
"I'm sorry."
I believed her apology was genuine.
But I didn't absolve her.
"You knew he was married."
She lowered her eyes.
"Yes."
"Then I'm not going to tell you that you did nothing wrong."
She nodded.
"But you're pregnant, and I'm not going to punish a child for what adults did."
She started crying.
I gave her tissues.
That was all.
No friendship.
No screaming.
No hair pulling.
Real betrayal is exhausting enough without choreography.
Madison agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Caden's attempt to hide assets became documented.
His attorney withdrew from representing him after discovering he had lied about financial disclosures.
Preston disappeared.
For six days.
Then he was detained trying to cross into Mexico.
He began cooperating immediately.
That was when the full scheme emerged.
Caden and Preston planned to use insider information from my company to acquire undervalued land before development announcements.
Mom's property was the crown jewel.
The twenty-eight-million-dollar loan would finance acquisitions.
My forged guarantee would carry the risk.
If investments succeeded, Caden controlled the profits.
If they failed, creditors came after assets tied to me.
He designed a system where I carried downside and he collected upside.
Hannah summarized:
"He wanted to become wealthy using your money, your credit, your information and your mother's land."
I stared.
"So basically our marriage."
She didn't laugh.
May you like
I did.
Sometimes humor is what remains after disgust.
