Howard then handed me his phone to show a message from Bradley’s office regarding internal irregularities and potential fraud.
A few minutes later the phone rang again and Howard listened in silence before leaning back on the sofa as if he had aged ten years in a second.
“They found him in his car outside a pharmacy on the way to Lake Murray, and he is alive but he took a large amount of pills,” he whispered.
The room fell silent while part of me felt relief, but another part knew the unbearable truth was only just beginning to emerge.
The following days were a nightmare of hospital visits and legal paperwork as I stopped being a bride and became a disaster manager.
The estate wedding was canceled and the gifts were returned while rumors spread through the family about why I had supposedly made a scene.
The firm where Bradley worked confirmed he had been manipulating funds for months to build his impeccable but fake suit of armor.
The final blow came when I discovered he had also used the savings I entrusted to him for a down payment on a future home.