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CHAPTER 74
publish date:
2026-07-11 13:35:04
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Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 84
JONATHAN'S POVMy father poured himself another measure of scotch before he spoke again, and I understood, watching his hand tremble slightly around the glass, that he needed the small ritual of it more than he needed the drink itself."Eighteen months ago, when Whitmore's firm extended that loan, there were conditions attached beyond the interest rate," he said. "I told myself at the time they were minor. Standard protections a lender builds into an agreement of that size. I didn't examine them as closely as I should have, because I was desperate, and desperate men read contracts the way they want to read them rather than the way they're actually written.""What conditions," I said, my voice flat, giving him nothing to soften against."A proxy agreement," he said. "Buried in the fine print, structured to activate only under specific circumstances. If the company ever faced what the document called a material governance crisis, and Jonathan, a murder investigation touching the family,
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 83
JONATHAN'S POV "Jonathan," my father said, before I'd even gotten a word out, "I need you and Anna to come to the house tonight. Now, if you can manage it. I'd rather explain this in person than let you sit with half a story until morning." Something in his voice had changed since the office that afternoon, the careful composure worn thin enough that I could hear the strain underneath it clearly for the first time in longer than I could remember. "We're already on our way," I said, and meant it, keys already in hand. Anna sat beside me on the drive over, quiet, watching the streets pass in the dark, and I was grateful, not for the first time this week, that she'd refused to be left behind for this. Whatever waited at my parents' house, I didn't want to face it without her. My father was waiting in the study when we arrived, alone, a decanter of scotch on the table beside him that looked considerably lower than it should have been for this early in the evening. My mother's absence
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 82
ANNA'S POV "I need a day," Jonathan's father said, before he could finish whatever he'd started to say a moment earlier, some of the composure sliding back over his face like a door quietly closing. "There are people I need to speak with, documents I need in front of me before I explain this properly. I don't want to give you half a story and let you build the wrong conclusions out of it." Jonathan's jaw tightened, and I could see how badly he wanted to press further, to demand the whole truth right there in that office rather than wait another twenty four hours for a version his father had time to shape into something more manageable. But he nodded, tightly, and I understood, watching him, that some part of this restraint was for my benefit as much as his own, a promise he was actively practicing now instead of merely making. We didn't speak much on the drive home. I could feel Jonathan running through a hundred possibilities, none of them good, and I let him have the silence for
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 81
JONATHAN'S POV "Where did I hear it doesn't matter right now," I said, watching Anna across the kitchen table, her eyes fixed on me as intently as they'd been fixed on the screen minutes earlier. "I need to know why her name is connected to a private investigator who's been circling this family for years." My father's voice, when it came again, had lost the easy warmth he usually managed even at this hour. "What investigator." "Diane," I said. "The woman who worked with Rose. Her name is on a retainer agreement tied to Isabela Marchetti, dated six months before any of this started with Rose at all. I want to know what you know about it." The silence on the line stretched long enough that I checked the screen to make sure the call hadn't dropped. "Isabela's family and ours go back a long way," he said finally, careful in a way I recognized from a lifetime of watching him navigate difficult negotiations. "Her father and I have done business together. Socially, our families crossed
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 80
ANNA'S POV Jonathan stopped in the kitchen doorway the moment he saw my face, reading something there before he'd even glanced at the laptop screen still open in front of me. "What happened," he said, already crossing the room. I turned the screen toward him without a word, watching his eyes move over the retainer agreement, the name at the bottom, the timeline I'd scrawled in the margin of my legal pad connecting it all together. I watched the exact moment it landed, his jaw tightening, color draining slightly from his face. "Isabela," he said, as though testing whether saying it out loud might change what the page in front of him actually claimed. "You know her." "I told you about her once. Barely. My parents' preferred match, before the arrangement with your family ever came up." He sat down slowly across from me, still staring at the screen. "I haven't spoken to her in years, Anna. I don't understand how her name ends up on a retainer agreement with Diane." "Neither do I,"
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 79
ANNA'S POV Jonathan spent most of the following three days buried in oversight committee meetings, coming home late and exhausted, apologetic in a way that felt genuine even when it meant another night of dinner eaten alone at the kitchen counter with my laptop for company. I told myself I wasn't breaking my promise. I hadn't called anyone, hadn't hired an investigator, hadn't done anything he could reasonably call reckless. I was simply reading, the same as that first night, following the thread of a single law firm's name from one dry public record to the next, the way I used to trace provenance on a museum acquisition, patient and methodical, refusing to let a gap in the paper trail stop me before I understood what I was actually looking at. The firm, Halloway and Cross, had represented Diane on the wrongful termination suit Jonathan and I had already found together, but the deeper I dug, the more I realized how narrow a slice of her history that single filing actually represent
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 2
I woke up with a start as the alarm clock beside me blared out its harsh sound. With an annoyed grimace, I stabbed hard on the alarm clock and silenced it."How the fuck do you still work?" I asked confused as I stared at the old alarm clock I had used as a kid."God damnit." I cursed again when it
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 1
ANNA'S POV"Mom, Dad I am home!" I announced as I took the stairs two at a time. In no time, I arrived at the top of the stairs leading to my parent's room."Mom Dad!" I called out again feeling so excited to be meeting my parents after almost six months. There was so much excitement in me that I
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 30
JONATHAN'S POV My phone beeped indicating that I have a message. I took my phone to check it. Going through the message, what I read took me by surprise. So, she is related to the manager. A lot of questions has been roaming in my head concerning the incident that day. I told lucas to investigate
Anna and Jonathan: The Arranged Marriage CHAPTER 3
"Anna, are you okay?" My mom asked carefully."Are you trying to force me to get married to someone?" I asked pained by their words. "Yes!" They both chorused.God, the shamelessness of my parents. "Mom, Dad, I just returned from school yesterday. Heck, I am supposed to be having some respite her
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