His failed restaurant investment.
His tendency to gamble on business ventures he couldn’t afford.
What if Marcus had paid him?
The answer arrived faster than expected.
Bank records showed Gavin had received $300,000 through a consulting company linked to Vale Development.
Gavin finally confessed.
He had been instructed to copy acquisition documents onto my laptop.
He believed the goal was corporate leverage.
He claimed he knew nothing about Eleanor’s medical episode.
Whether that was completely true would be decided elsewhere.
But one fact became clear.
Marcus had spent months constructing a trap.
A trap that required two things.
Eleanor needed to appear vulnerable.
And I needed to look guilty.
The only mistake in the plan was painfully simple.
I stopped the car.
Marcus had apparently expected me to continue driving.
The staged look-alike photograph could later be presented as evidence that I had met Eleanor secretly.
Instead, I became the person who called emergency services, stayed with her, spoke to paramedics, and created dozens of independent witnesses proving exactly where I had been.
