A Poor Woman Was Forced to Marry a Sleeping Billionaire — Then the Man Everyone Thought Was Unconscious Revealed He Had Heard Every Word.
PART 4
The Ashcombe family had received $4.8 million from a Kade charitable trust. Officially, the money funded Delphine’s treatment. In reality, only $38,000 had reached any medical provider. Odalys spent the rest on a townhouse, jewelry, and Nadia’s new luxury boutique.
More disturbing was the payment that came before the wedding: $600,000 transferred to a shell company controlled by Odalys.
The sender was not Genevieve Kade. It was a consulting firm owned by Marcus.
“He paid her to substitute me for Nadia,” Wren said as Owen spread the bank records across Weston’s desk.
“This was planned six weeks before Nadia supposedly refused. He wanted you specifically.”
Owen placed another document beside it. “We found Mrs. Ashcombe. A behavioral-care facility in western Connecticut. She is registered as Delphine Ames. The admission order says she suffers from delusions, but her previous oncology file shows no psychiatric diagnosis.”
Wren stood so quickly her chair fell. “Where? Can we bring her here?”
“Your father is her court-appointed guardian. The facility will not release her without his consent or an emergency order.”
“Get the order,” Weston told Owen.
“Our attorneys are filing now.”
“And prepare the helicopter.”
By sunset, a judge authorized an independent medical evaluation. The facility director objected until Owen arrived with state health inspectors and a warrant.
Wren found Delphine in a locked room with no photographs and no clock. Her mother had always been a small woman. Now she seemed made of paper.
“Mom?”
Delphine stared without recognition.
Wren knelt and lifted the spoon necklace. “You made this for me when I was eleven. You said beautiful things don’t have to begin as valuable things.”
Delphine’s fingers touched the silver curve. “Marigold,” she whispered.
It was the name she had called Wren as a child.
Wren laid her head in her mother’s lap and wept.