PART 2
Manuel cleaned the wound on her back himself, never calling for staff. He asked for permission before touching her, kept the door open, and promised no doctor chosen by Emmett would ever enter the estate again.
Rosalie didn’t fully trust his promise at first, but it was the first commitment in her life that didn’t feel like a threat.
Over the following weeks, their marriage—built as a business arrangement—began to shift. Rosalie reviewed Pinecrest’s financial records and uncovered fraudulent charges harming the estate workers. Manuel immediately removed the corrupt administrator, returned the stolen money, and supported every decision she made.
When a high-end dressmaker spoke disrespectfully about hiding Rosalie’s body under heavy fabrics, Manuel dismissed her immediately. Later, he apologized for acting without consulting Rosalie and allowed her to choose a new tailor herself.
It wasn’t love yet, but it was grounded in mutual respect, which already felt like a miracle to Rosalie.
Still, Emmett continued to manipulate from a distance.
Dr. Callaway appeared unannounced, insisting on evaluating Rosalie’s “fragile mental state.” Manuel refused him publicly, turning him away at the door. Two days later, Naomi—Rosalie’s assistant—accidentally drank hot chocolate meant for her and collapsed.
An independent doctor confirmed the drink contained a dangerous sedative.
“It was meant for me,” Rosalie whispered beside Naomi’s hospital bed, realizing her father never intended for her to survive long after the wedding.
That night, she led Manuel to Lorelei’s private archive room, transferred to Pinecrest under instructions from a secondary will Emmett couldn’t override.
Rosalie inserted the small key.
The lock opened smoothly.
Inside, they found letters, hidden bank records, and a leather notebook written in a simple household code. Rosalie recognized her mother’s handwriting and realized Lorelei had concealed money within ordinary expenses—candles meant bribes, repairs meant payments to corrupt officials.
They spent days decoding every page together.
Emmett had spent years draining the inheritance Lorelei left for Rosalie—timber shares, land holdings, and an investment trust meant to transfer to her upon marriage or her thirtieth birthday.
But the most shocking discovery lay inside a blue folder.
The documents exposed direct wire transfers to an accountant, a local journalist, and a city official—all of whom were tied to the corporate scandal that destroyed Manuel’s father.
“My father was framed,” Manuel murmured, stunned as he realized Emmett had deliberately ruined his family after the elder Nelson uncovered the fraud.
Rosalie felt the ground shift beneath her, overwhelmed by the truth. “I was only seventeen then, locked in a room, and I had no idea what he was doing.”
Manuel paused briefly before replying, and that moment of silence cut deeper than she expected.
“You are not responsible for his actions,” he said, reaching toward her. “Forgive my silence. My anger spoke before my reason could.”
At the bottom of the folder, they found a secret draft of a marriage agreement containing a forged clause stating that if Rosalie died while Manuel was under investigation, the entire fortune would revert directly to Emmett.
Alongside it were photographs of a sharp, dangerous bend on the highway to Grand Rapids, accompanied by a typed note from the family lawyer, Wesley Turner, explaining that an accident after the transfer would make the husband the prime suspect.
Rosalie suddenly understood the full extent of her father’s plan.
Emmett had chosen a financially ruined man so he could later frame him as a greedy killer. She was meant to die in a staged accident, Manuel would be imprisoned, and her father would legally reclaim everything he had stolen.
Without warning, the shrill blast of a fire alarm echoed through the corridors.
Thick gray smoke began seeping rapidly beneath the office door.
Someone had set the lower floor on fire, directly beneath the archive room.
Manuel grabbed the blue folder from the table, but Rosalie turned back to retrieve Lorelei’s coded notebook. At that moment, a burning beam crashed down between them. The ceiling groaned, and the windows shattered outward from the heat.
“Rosalie, get out of there right now!” Manuel shouted through the flames.
Through the smoke, Rosalie caught sight of a shadow sliding the heavy iron bolt shut from the outside, trapping them inside as the ceiling support gave way and fell onto Manuel.
