THE ENEMY I MARRIED

CHAPTER FOUR: BREAKING OPEN SECRETS

Evelyn's POV

I spent three days trying to decrypt my father's files while pretending to plan a wedding I didn’t want.

Andrea, Julian's attorney, handled most arrangements. She was efficient and I caught her watching me sometimes with an expression I could not read.

Valerie visited that afternoon with coffee and worry.

"You look terrible," she said bluntly.

"Thank you."

We went to my bedroom. Valerie pulled out her phone and opened a white noise app, turning the volume high.

"The penthouse is probably bugged," she whispered. "Julian has a reputation for surveillance."

I told her everything: the blackmail photo, Julian knowing about NexusTech, the messages pushing me to trust him.

When I finished, Valerie was pale. "If Julian has you trapped, what are you going to do?"

"Find out what my father was hiding."

Valerie was quiet, then said something that changed everything. "I might know someone who can help. A hacker I worked with years ago. He owes me a favor."

"You were a hacker?"

She looked uncomfortable. "In college. I left that world when your father hired me, but I still have contacts."

"Can you trust this person?"

"With my life. But Evelyn, if we open those files, you need to be ready for what we might find."

"I need to know. Whatever it is."

After she left, I found Julian's mother standing by the windows. She wore a blue dress, but her eyes had that distant look.

"Hello, ma'am."

She turned and smiled. "Beatrice. You came back."

"I'm Evelyn. Beatrice was my mother."

Her expression clouded. "We were all friends. Before the lies. Matthew and Vincent were friends like brothers. But someone whispered poison." She grabbed my hands. "You have to stop it, Beatrice before it kills the children too."

"Ma, who was whispering lies?"

But her eyes had already gone vague.

Julian came home at eight carrying takeout.

"I brought dinner"

We sat at the kitchen counter in awkward silence.

"You talked to my mother," he said finally.

"She called me Beatrice, she said Matthew and Vincent were best friends."

Julian panicked. "She is confused."

"What if she’s not?"

"They were never friends."

"Show me your evidence then."

Julian walked to his office and returned with a thick folder.

I went through documents.: emails showing deals falling through, financial statements showing the company bleeding money.

But I did not see my father's name.

"Where is evidence against Vincent Hartwell?" I asked.

Julian flipped to a section. "These emails show your father negotiating with my father's clients behind his back."

I read carefully. The emails were addressed to V. Hartwell, not Vincent T. Hartwell.

"These just say V. Hartwell," I said slowly. "My father signed everything for Vincent T. Hartwell."

Julian grabbed the papers back.

" You're seeing what you want because you need someone to blame."

Julian's hands shook. "I was eleven years old with his blood on my shoes. I heard him say your father destroyed him before he pulled the trigger."

The pain in his voice was raw.

"What if your father was wrong? What if someone lied to him?"

Julian sat down furious. "If I spent twenty years hating the wrong person, then everything I built is a lie."

"I know.. if my father was innocent, I’d be trapped here for nothing."

We sat in silence, facing the possibility that our lives were built on lies.

"The encrypted files," Julian said finally. "Let me help you open them."

"Why would you help?"

"Because I’m tired of being angry. If your father was innocent, if mine was lied to, maybe I can finally stop."

I wanted to believe him.

"I have someone working on the encryption," I said carefully. "If he succeeds, I will share what we find. But Julian, if those files prove my father was guilty, you can't

use them in the lawsuits."

"And if they prove your father was innocent?"

"Then you drop the lawsuits anyway."

Julian extended his hand. "Deal."

I shook it, and for the first time since signing the contract, I felt like we might be on the same side.

Two days later, Valerie's hacker succeeded.

Solomon looked about nineteen with wild hair. But his fingers flew over the keyboard with confidence.

"Military grade encryption," he said. "But they made one mistake. Password based on personal information."

"What was the password?"

"Beatrice1957. Your mother's name and birth year."

The screen unlocked, revealing hundreds of files.

Valerie, Julian, and I sat in Julian's office with the door locked and started going through files.

What we found was worse than either of us imagined.

Vincent Hartwell and Matthew Cross were not enemies but best friends who co-founded CrossHart Technologies. They developed a revolutionary invention together.

But someone wanted that invention.

The emails showed a third partner who felt entitled to equal share despite contributing nothing. When Matthew and Vincent refused, this person began destroying them both. The person forged documents; false testimony; manipulated records that turned best friends into enemies.

My father spent years tracking the truth, collecting evidence.

Then his brakes were cut.

Julian's face had gone white. "Who was the third partner?"

I scrolled until I found it.

Stephen Grayson.

He married my father's sister, took the Hartwell name, used it to insert himself.

When Matthew and Vincent refused equity, Stephen destroyed them both.

"Stephen," I whispered. "The chairman of my board… He killed them both."

Julian stood and walked to the window shattered.

"Twenty years," he said, voice barely controlled. "I hated your father for twenty years. I forced you into this marriage. And it was all based on lies."

"You were a child when your father died."

"I was not a child when I started attacking your company." His eyes filled with self-loathing. "I am exactly the monster Stephen wanted me to be."

Valerie cleared her throat. "We need to figure out what to do. If Stephen finds out we know..."

"He will destroy the evidence and disappear," I finished.

Julian pulled out his phone. "I am calling my attorney."

"Wait," I said. "If we move now, he will know we are working together."

Julian considered this. "So we play along; pretend we still hate each other; continue with the wedding but build our case quietly."

"That means living here together for real. Convincing everyone that the marriage is legitimate."

The air between us felt charged.

"I know," I said quietly.

Julian looked at me with a cool expression . "Evelyn, I cannot undo what I did. But I can promise that from now on, I’m on your side. We take down Stephen together. And when this is over, you get your freedom."

"What about the lawsuits?"

"Dropped, tomorrow."

"And the merger?"

"Dissolved when we expose Stephen. Hartwell Technologies goes back to you."

It was everything I wanted. So why did walking away feel wrong?

"Okay…We work together. But Julian, I need you to be honest about everything. No more surveillance, no more secrets."

Julian hesitated, then nodded. "No more secrets."

After Valerie left, Julian and I sat surrounded by evidence of a conspiracy that destroyed both our families.

"Your mother knew," I said. "She kept talking about poison and lies."

Julian was quiet. "When I was young, I remember my father and yours at our house. Barbecues. Watching football like real friends. I forgot because it was easier to hate."

I reached across the desk and took his hand.

"We were both victims," I said. "Stephen used our grief as a weapon. But we can fight back now."

Julian's fingers tightened around mine. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For not hating me as much as I deserve."

"I'm too tired to hate anyone anymore. I just want this to be over."

"It will, I promise."

We sat holding hands while the city glowed outside and decades of lies began unraveling, and I felt something that might have been hope warming the cold place in my chest where fear had lived for so long.