He pulled a pocket watch from his jacket. It was old, silver, simple in design, its surface etched with fine scratches.
"This belonged to my birth mother. She was an ordinary woman, a secretary for Matriarch Farley. She was eventually moved to a care facility on the outskirts of the city. The official story was that she'd passed away from illness."
"Matriarch Farley holds her over my head. If I don't do exactly as she says, my mother has an 'accident.'"
"She arranged our marriage as a trap."
"Lucy Stephens was part of the plan too. Matriarch Farley knew Lucy was ambitious. She deliberately gave her access to sensitive information, nudged her along behind the scenes. Lucy was meant to be a pawn, a check against you and the Hensons."
"She had me act like I still carried a torch for Lucy. That was calculated too. She wanted to provoke you into making mistakes."
"Her original plan was to wait until jealousy or something else pushed you into acting irrationally, or until the Henson family showed any sign of stepping out of line. Then she'd have justification to rally the other families and carve up everything the Hensons owned."