"Matriarch Farley holds her over my head. If I don't do exactly as she says, my mother has an 'accident.'"
"She arranged our marriage as a trap."
"Lucy Stephens was part of the plan too. Matriarch Farley knew Lucy was ambitious. She deliberately gave her access to sensitive information, nudged her along behind the scenes. Lucy was meant to be a pawn, a check against you and the Hensons."
"She had me act like I still carried a torch for Lucy. That was calculated too. She wanted to provoke you into making mistakes."
"Her original plan was to wait until jealousy or something else pushed you into acting irrationally, or until the Henson family showed any sign of stepping out of line. Then she'd have justification to rally the other families and carve up everything the Hensons owned."
"But she didn't anticipate that Lucy's appetite was far bigger than she'd estimated, and completely beyond her control. You saw how that ended."
I sank back into the sofa. The glass nearly slipped from my fingers.
My mind went blank.
Scenes from my previous life played back one by one.
He didn't choose not to love me. Matriarch Farley had been holding his mother's life over his head the entire time?
Matriarch Farley was the one pulling the strings all along. And our family, and me... in my last life, I'd thrown everything away, my very life, all because of her scheme?
I thought back to what Grandma had told me in the car yesterday.
"Grandma, are you serious? You want to strike out on your own, but you're handing over the most profitable projects?"
The old woman had laughed.
"Those projects? They're the meat hanging in the shop window. They're there so people feel comfortable. You think I'd put the real lifeline of this family on display for everyone to see?"
"And do you honestly think what's on the books is all I have?"
Every old-money dynasty had power hidden in the shadows, and the Hensons were no exception.
The investment network and concealed business empire Grandma had built in private dwarfed anything on the public ledger. If she wanted to, she could assemble a coalition powerful enough to make anyone think twice.
All this time, my own grandmother had been the biggest hidden player on the board.
But one thing still didn't add up. In my previous life, the Henson family had burned through everything to prop up the Farleys, and Grandma had never once deployed these resources.