Chapter 5
Brooke’s wineglass slipped from her fingers and shattered on the floor.
Red wine splashed across the pale carpet like an open wound.
Madison covered her mouth with both hands.
Lauren stood so quickly that her chair crashed backward.
Nathan turned white.
Not merely pale.
White, as though every drop of blood had drained out of him.
Charles stared at the photograph without blinking.
At first, he appeared unable to understand what he was seeing.
Or perhaps he understood perfectly, and his pride refused to accept it.
Very slowly, he turned toward Brooke.
“Tell me that isn’t you.”
Brooke opened her mouth.
No sound came out.
Nathan stepped forward.
“Dad, I can explain.”
Charles looked at him as though he had discovered something rotten living inside his own house.
“Explain what?”
“That you slept with my wife in your wife’s bed?”
His roar shook the glasses on the dining table.
Brooke suddenly recovered her voice.
“This is manipulation!”
“Emily is insane!”
“She has always been jealous of me!”
“That photograph has been taken completely out of context!”
Emily walked to a side table and picked up the first binder.
“Brooke, some photographs can be taken out of context.”
“A bank transfer cannot.”
She dropped the binder onto the dining table.
The heavy impact made everyone turn.
“What is that?” Charles asked, his voice unsteady.
“The reason your wife has spent three years purchasing diamonds with money intended for sick children, canceled scholarships, and inflated charity programs.”
Brooke lunged toward the binder.
Charles seized it first.
His hands trembled as he opened it.
Invoices.
Deposits.
Contracts involving vendors that did not exist.
A company called Whitmore Consulting Services, registered under Brooke’s maiden name.
May you like
Monthly payments disguised as “institutional branding consultation.”
Receipts for jewelry.
