Inside were financial records connected to Marcus, several large gambling losses, outstanding private debts, and one especially troubling discovery. Three months before meeting Hannah, Marcus had attended a closed door meeting involving developers interested in purchasing property near the Brooks Land. Lucas looked up sharply.
3 months before. Naomi nodded. He knew about the property before he knew Hannah. The implication was impossible to ignore. Marcus hadn’t stumbled into Hannah’s life. He had walked into it deliberately. Lucas leaned back in his chair. His instincts had been right all along, but proving it would be another matter entirely.
Because from Hannah’s perspective, Marcus appeared perfect, kind, reliable, attentive, everything Lucas wasn’t, at least not openly. That night, Hannah returned home feeling happier than she had in years. Rose noticed immediately. Someone had a good evening. Hannah blushed. Grandma. Rose smiled knowingly.
Yet, as she watched her granddaughter, a flicker of concern crossed her face. The concern wasn’t about Marcus. Not exactly. It was about something Walter Brooks had once told her decades earlier. A warning she had nearly forgotten. A warning connected to the land. a warning connected to people who suddenly became interested when money appeared.
