A Marriage Built on Ashes

Chapter 7: A Warning, Not A Blessing

Sloane

I looked at the envelope, then at Cade. After everything we'd just negotiated, this felt like the final piece.

“Stay,” I told him. “If grandmother wanted you specifically in that will, whatever she wrote...I guess it’s best you should probably hear it.”

“I’ll leave you two to it. My work here is done”, Jonathan says, closing his briefcase. He and Margaret leave the room, once again leaving Cade and I in the silence. I broke the wax seal and pulled out the letter. Grandmother's handwriting filled the pages. I began to read aloud.

My dearest Sloane,

If you’re reading this, then you’ve already done something I never wanted to force you into. I imagine you’re angry. You have every right to be.

I need you to understand this was not about controlling your life. It was about preserving it.

There are things happening within our hotels that were never meant to see daylight. I noticed patterns first — accounts that didn’t reconcile, guests who appeared and vanished, records altered after the fact. Then people began asking questions. And then those people stopped asking anything at all.

I don’t know who can be trusted. Not the board. Not the police. Possibly not even those closest to us. I learned too late that the safest secrets are the ones hidden in plain sight.

I could not tell you directly. If you knew too much too soon, you would be in danger. If I went to the authorities, whoever is watching would know I had discovered them.

So, I did the only thing left to me.

Lily Whitmore died because she tried to expose the same rot I uncovered. Cade has been searching for the truth ever since. He does not have access. You do. You do not yet have his experience. He does.

Together, you are harder to silence.

I trust Cade because I have known his family for decades, and because I have seen what grief has made of him. He is not a man who can be bought, and he is not one who walks away when the cost becomes unbearable.

More importantly, when the truth begins to surface, you will need someone who understands the danger and will stand beside you when others retreat.

As for matters of the heart… I won’t pretend to know what the two of you are now. I only know what you once were, and that some bonds leave marks whether we acknowledge them or not.

I am not asking you to fall in love again.

I am asking you to survive.

Be brave. Be cautious. Trust him with the investigation — even if trust in anything else takes time.

With all my love,

Grandmother

I carefully folded the letter, my hands moving on autopilot while my mind tried to process everything I'd just read.

“She knew she was a target,” I finally said, my voice in whispers. “She knew, and she couldn't save herself, so she tried to save me instead.”

“Your grandmother was brilliant,” Cade said, changing tack, though his eyes still held something I wasn't ready to name. “Look at what she did. She couldn't tell you directly without putting you in danger. She couldn't go to the police without tipping off whoever was dirty. So, she created a scenario where you'd have help, where you'd have protection, where you'd have someone with the skills to investigate but the access to do it properly.”

“She played chess with our lives,” I said bitterly.

“She saved your life,” Cade corrected. “And she's giving us a chance to get justice for Lily. For her. For every girl who disappeared through those hotels.”

I looked down at the letter again, at my grandmother's handwriting. Be brave, she'd written. She always believed I was capable of anything. Even this. Even marrying my ex-boyfriend to investigate my family for murder and trafficking.

“Sloane, what your grandmother mentioned about me...”

“Don't.” I held up a hand, still not looking at him. “Don't say whatever you're about to say. Not about the part where she said you... where she mentioned...”

“That I love you?” Cade finished quietly.

My eyes snapped to his. “She was a sentimental old woman. She said so herself. She was reading into things, making connections that weren't there. We were kids, Cade.”

“Not kids,” he interrupted, his voice firm. “Old enough to know what I felt. Old enough to know what I was giving up.”

“Then why did you...?” I stopped myself, shaking my head. “No. This isn't the time. We have bigger problems. My grandmother was murdered. And now I’m sure that someone in my family is running a trafficking operation. That's what matters right now.”

But even as I said it, I could feel the weight of his unspoken words hanging between us. “”, grandmother had written. As if she'd known something I didn't. As if in all those years of friendship with his mother, she'd learned secrets I never knew from being with Cade.

“We have three months,” I said finally, looking up at Cade. “Three months to live together, investigate together, and find evidence strong enough to bring down whoever's behind this. After that...we’re done!”

Cade nodded slowly in agreement.

“I need to get back to my apartment. I have to start packing, since I’m moving into your townhouse in a few days.”

“Sloane...”

“We'll talk more later,” I cut him off, already moving toward the door. “My grandmother was murdered. That's... that's not something I can just...” My voice broke, and I hated myself for it. I hated that after all these years of building walls, of making myself strong and independent, I was falling apart in front of him.

Cade stood, taking a step toward me, then stopping himself. Respecting the boundaries we'd just set.

“Right now, I need some time to process all of this.” I said and walked out.

In the elevator, alone finally, I let myself feel it. The grief. The rage. The betrayal. My grandmother had known she was dying, had known someone in our family was killing her, and she'd spent her last months setting up an elaborate plan to protect me and get justice.

She'd trusted me to be strong enough to handle this. To marry the man who'd broken my heart. To investigate my own family. To risk everything for the truth.

Be brave, I could almost hear her say. Be smart. Trust him with the investigation, even if you can't yet trust him with your heart.

I pulled out my phone and looked at my calendar. In under three months, I'd be married to Cade Whitmore. I'd either have saved my family's legacy or destroyed it completely.

As the elevator doors opened to the lobby, I straightened my shoulders and lifted my chin.

If grandmother had believed I could do this, then I damn well would. Even if it killed me.