CHAPTER 6 — THE HEIRESS THEY TRIED TO REPLACE
The transfer documents were dated six months earlier.
Three weeks before Melanie began appearing at Wyatt’s gym.
Two weeks before my parents started pressuring me to end my engagement.
One week before Gregory invited Wyatt to become an investor in a “family opportunity.”
Everything was connected.
My inheritance.
Wyatt’s money.
Melanie’s obsession.
The attack.
Gregory and Brenda had spent years controlling assets that legally belonged to me. But as I grew older, maintaining the fraud became more difficult.
My engagement created an even greater risk.
Marriage would lead to financial planning.
Financial planning would expose trusts, tax documents, and ownership records.
Once Wyatt’s attorneys examined my background, the truth might surface.
So my family developed a solution.
Remove me.
Replace me with Melanie.
If Wyatt married her, his wealth would join the money stolen from my inheritance. Gregory could keep control of both.
When Wyatt explained the scheme, he sounded disgusted.
“They didn’t want Melanie to have a husband,” he said. “They wanted her to have an asset.”
“And she agreed.”
“She was raised to believe everything belonged to her.”
I sat beside Elias’s hospital bed while an attorney named Naomi Price reviewed the Hale Medical documents.
Naomi specialized in trust fraud and inheritance litigation. She had represented several families in high-profile financial crimes and spoke with the steady confidence of someone who enjoyed dismantling liars.
“The transfer to Melanie is almost certainly invalid,” she said.
“Almost?” I asked.
“The signatures attributed to you were notarized.”
“I never signed anything.”
“We’ll prove that. But Gregory used copies of your identification and a notary who has worked with him for years.”
“Can the shares be sold?”
“Hale Medical is privately held. Transfers require board approval, but the board believed Melanie was the lawful beneficiary.”
“Why didn’t anyone contact me?”
“According to company records, Melanie attended meetings using your legal identity.”
I stared at her.
“She pretended to be me?”
“For financial purposes, yes.”
Wyatt paced near the window.
“How could the board not know what Sadie looked like?”
“Rebecca’s branch of the family had no involvement in operations for decades. Gregory communicated through attorneys. When an adult beneficiary finally appeared, no one had reason to question her.”
I thought of Melanie’s expensive clothes, her sudden confidence, and her insistence that she belonged in Wyatt’s world.
She had been practicing a stolen life.
Mine.
“What is the inheritance worth?” I asked.
Naomi closed the folder.
“The shares currently held in the trust are valued at approximately one hundred and eighty-six million dollars.”
I laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the number was impossible.
I had worked weekends to pay rent.
I had delayed dental treatment because I couldn’t afford it.
I had spent years feeling embarrassed when my parents accused me of being financially irresponsible.
All while they controlled nearly two hundred million dollars that belonged to me.
“Why did we live in that old house?” I asked.
“Secrecy,” Elias whispered.
We turned toward him.
He was stronger now and able to sit upright for short periods.
“Gregory liked people thinking he was ordinary,” he continued. “Less attention.”
Naomi nodded.
“Most of the money moved through layered trusts, shell companies, and commercial properties. The modest lifestyle helped avoid scrutiny.”
“What about Melanie’s spending?”
“Recently, it became much less modest.”
Naomi showed us account statements.
Melanie had purchased designer clothing, jewelry, a condominium, and a luxury vehicle through companies connected to my trust.
She had also made a three-million-dollar deposit toward a mansion outside Dublin, Ohio.
A mansion she planned to share with Wyatt.
Printed emails revealed that she had contacted a wedding planner.
She had selected a venue.
She had ordered a custom gown.
She had even written a guest list.
All before my family attacked me.
“She thought I would be dead,” I said.
No one contradicted me.
That afternoon, Gregory was brought before a judge for a preliminary hearing.
Because of my injuries, I watched remotely from a secure hospital room.
My father entered the courtroom wearing an orange jail uniform.
He looked smaller than I remembered, but not ashamed.
His attorney argued that the brick had been thrown accidentally.
Then prosecutors introduced the electrician’s video.
The footage showed Gregory advancing toward me with the brick already raised.
It captured Brenda saying, “Do it before she signs anything with him.”
It captured Melanie stepping away as if she knew exactly what would happen.
And it captured Gregory throwing the brick directly at my face.
The courtroom became silent.
The judge denied bail.
As deputies led him away, Gregory turned toward the camera broadcasting the hearing.
He knew I was watching.
He smiled.
Then he mouthed four words.
Wyatt is using you.
I hated that the words affected me.
Gregory had lied to me for my entire life.
He had stolen my inheritance, imprisoned my real father, and tried to kill me.
Still, poison works even when you know it is poison.
That evening, I asked Wyatt a question I never expected to ask.
“When did you learn about Hale Medical?”
His face changed.
“Sadie.”
“When?”
He sat across from me.
“Two months ago.”
The room went still.
“You knew I had an inheritance?”
“I knew there was an irregular trust connected to your Social Security number.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I was investigating.”
“Why?”
“Because your father approached me about investing fifteen million dollars in a property fund. My finance team reviewed the companies involved and found your name connected to one of them.”
“You found my name on a trust worth millions and said nothing?”
“I didn’t know it was yours. The documents identified Melanie as Sadie Davis.”
“You know what Melanie looks like.”
“The trust records did not include photographs.”
“But you suspected something.”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more because he didn’t deny it.
“How long were you planning to wait?”
“Until my attorney confirmed the fraud.”
“Or until after we were married?”
His expression tightened.
“That’s what Gregory wants you to think.”
“Answer me.”
“I planned to tell you before we announced the wedding date.”
“That was the night they attacked me.”
“Yes.”
My chest felt too tight.
“You should have told me immediately.”
“I was afraid you would confront them before we had evidence.”
“So you decided for me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“That is exactly what everyone says when they take away someone else’s choice.”
He flinched.
I removed my engagement ring.
“Sadie, don’t.”
“I need space.”
“Your father is trying to separate us.”
“My father is Elias.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes. I do.”
I placed the ring on the table.
“I also know you kept a life-changing secret from me.”
Wyatt stared at the ring.
“I love you.”
“I believe you.”
That seemed to hurt him more.
“But love without honesty becomes control,” I continued. “And I’ve had enough people controlling me.”
He stood slowly.
“I’ll leave.”
He paused at the door.
“For what it’s worth, I was never interested in your inheritance.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you ending this?”
“I’m not ending anything. I’m finding out who I am when no one else is making decisions for me.”
After he left, I cried until the pain medication carried me into sleep.
At two in the morning, an alarm sounded in the hallway.
Nurses ran toward Elias’s room.
I forced myself out of bed and followed.
A guard lay unconscious near the elevator.
Elias’s room was empty.
His IV line had been cut.
The window was open.
May you like
On his pillow rested a photograph of Wyatt.
Across Wyatt’s face, someone had drawn a red X.
