For a long moment, Elena couldn't say anything at all.
"My father," she repeated. "Richard Carter."
"I don't have proof," Alexander said. "I told you that already. It's a guess, based on things that don't add up. But it's the guess that fits best."
"Explain it to me. All of it. You promised me a real answer."
Alexander leaned back against the seat, watching the dark trees pass by outside the window instead of looking at her. "Three years ago, right before the accident, Blackwood Holdings was in the middle of a deal with Carter Industries. A big one. The kind of deal that would have tied our two families together financially for years."
"The same deal that ended up with this marriage."
"The same one," he said. "Except back then, it wasn't going well. My father was starting to have dou
