Chapter 3
The next hour was a blur of noise and motion.
Hotel staff appeared out of nowhere, clearing the lobby of gawking guests. Dominic’s security team—six men in dark suits who moved like they had been born to it—materialized at the doors, ensuring no one left who might be needed later.
Brandon stood frozen in front of us, his tuxedo suddenly looking cheap, his face a mask of panic.
The blonde woman descended the stairs slowly, the boy at her side. She stopped a few feet away, her eyes flicking between me, Dominic, and Brandon.
“Brandon,” she said again, her voice colder now. “You have ten seconds to tell me exactly what is going on here.”
Brandon’s head snapped toward her. “Victoria, please—just let me handle this—”
“Handle what?” I asked. My voice sounded strange to my own ears—calm, detached, nothing like the screaming mess I felt inside. “Handle the wife you’ve been hiding for seven years? The daughter you pretend doesn’t exist when you’re with your real family?”
Sophie whimpered against Dominic’s shoulder. “Daddy?”
Brandon’s face twisted. He looked at his daughter, then at the boy beside Victoria, and I saw something in his expression that made my blood run cold.
Guilt. But not the good kind. The calculating kind.
“Alyssa, you have to understand,” he said, taking a step toward me. “None of this was supposed to happen like this. Victoria’s father—he’s the majority shareholder in the regional logistics firm I’ve been courting for two years. If I don’t marry her, the deal dies. My company dies. Everything I’ve built—”
“Everything you’ve built?” I laughed. It was a sharp, ugly sound. “You mean everything my brothers paid for? Every contract, every loan, every last dollar that kept Cole Industries from folding in year two? That was Dominic’s money. Nate’s connections. Graham’s influence. You never built anything, Brandon. You just played dress-up while my family propped you up.”
The words hit him like a physical blow. He staggered back as if I’d slapped him.
“You—you knew?”
“Of course I knew,” I said. “I let you pretend. I wanted you to feel like a man. I wanted you to be proud of yourself. I never cared about the money. I just wanted you to love us. Sophie and me.”
Victoria made a small, disgusted sound in the back of her throat.
“You’ve been married this whole time?” she said to Brandon. “And you let me introduce you to my parents? You let Ethan call you Dad?”
The boy—Ethan—looked up at Brandon, his lip trembling. “Daddy?”
Brandon didn’t look at him. He was still staring at me, desperation creeping into his eyes.
“Alyssa, baby, please,” he said, dropping to his knees right there on the marble floor. “I made a mistake. A terrible, stupid mistake. But it meant nothing. You and Sophie—you’re my real family. I’ll end it with Victoria right now. I’ll give back every dollar your brothers gave me. Just—just don’t leave me.”
I stared down at the man I had loved for a decade. The man I had moved across the country for. The man I had borne a child for, hidden my identity for, lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment for while he played tycoon in penthouses and boardrooms.
I didn’t feel anger anymore. Not really.
I felt hollow.
“Get up, Brandon,” I said quietly. “You’re embarrassing yourself.”
He scrambled to his feet, hope flaring in his eyes. “Then you’ll give me another chance? I know I don’t deserve it, but—”
“I’m not giving you anything,” I said. “Except exactly what you’ve earned.”
I turned to Dominic. “Take Sophie to the car. I’ll be right there.”
Dominic hesitated. “Allie—”
“I’m fine,” I said. “I just need five minutes alone with him.”
Dominic studied my face for a long moment, then nodded. He pressed a kiss to Sophie’s forehead.
“Come on, bug. Let’s go pick out that pony you’ve been asking for. The white one with the pink ribbons.”
Sophie looked over his shoulder at me, her big eyes worried. “You coming, Mommy?”
“I’ll be right there, baby,” I promised. “I just need to talk to Daddy for a second.”
Dominic carried her out. The security team followed, leaving only Tessa—who had been standing frozen against the wall this whole time—Victoria, Ethan, Brandon, and me.
The doors clicked shut.
The silence stretched.
Brandon was the first to break it.
“Alyssa, I know you’re furious—”
“Did you ever love me?” I asked.
The question hung in the air.
Brandon’s mouth opened and closed. “Of course I—”
“Not the version of me you thought I was,” I interrupted. “Not the poor girl from nowhere with no family and no money who would never ask questions and never cause trouble. Me. Alyssa Whitmore. The girl who could have bought your company ten times over before you even learned what a balance sheet was. Could you have ever loved that girl?”
He couldn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
I nodded, more to myself than to him.
“Seven years,” I said. “Seven years I let you lie to me. Seven years I let you treat our daughter like a dirty secret. And for what? So you could play dress-up with a woman who doesn’t even know your real name?”
Victoria stepped forward then. She looked me dead in the eye.
“I didn’t know,” she said. “About you. About Sophie. If I had—”
“Save it,” I said. “You didn’t ask. You didn’t want to know. You saw a handsome, ambitious man on the rise and you jumped. We’re not so different, you and I. We both believed the lie.”
I turned back to Brandon.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I said. “You’re going to sign the divorce papers my lawyers send over. You’re going to sign over every asset you have—house, cars, stocks, everything—to me. It’s less than you owe my family anyway. You’re going to have no parental rights. No visitation. No child support—because I don’t want a single dollar that has your name on it anywhere near my daughter.”
Brandon paled. “You can’t be serious—”
“I’m dead serious,” I said. “And if you fight any of this? If you so much as breathe a word to a reporter about my family or my daughter? Dominic will bury you so deep even the IRS won’t be able to find your body. Do you understand me?”
The fear was back in his eyes, stronger than before.
“You—you wouldn’t,” he stammered. “You’re not like that.”
I smiled. It was the same smile Dominic had given him earlier. Cold. Final.
“You have no idea what I’m like, Brandon. You never did.”
I turned on my heel and walked toward the doors.
Halfway there, I stopped and looked back at Tessa. She flinched.
May you like
“Tessa,” I said. “Clean out your desk. You’re fired. And if I ever hear you called anyone’s secretary again? I’ll make sure you never work in this state. Or any other.”
I pushed through the doors and stepped out into the storm.
