I caught my husband sleeping with my brother’s wife, so I quietly swapped the lubricant in his bag for industrial glue.
Her breathing was fast.
“Brandon, listen to me. Don’t go to the house.”
His face became rigid.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You vanished after Julian’s s/u/rgery. Your family’s companies received millions from Ashford Maritime. Give me one reason to trust you.”
“I married you because Eleanor ordered me to get close to you.”
Brandon’s knuckles whitened around the steering wheel.
Even though Julian had already suggested it, hearing Serena admit it changed something in him.
“But I stayed because I loved you,” she said.
He stared at the road.
“Do not use that word.”
“It’s true.”
“Was any part of our marriage real?”
“Yes.”
“Which part?”
Her answer broke slightly.
“The part where I tried to leave.”
I turned toward the phone.
“You tried to leave Eleanor’s plan?”
“Three years ago. She reminded me what would happen to my family if I spoke.”
“What would happen?”
“She had evidence linking my uncle to the shell companies.”
“Evidence she helped create,” I said.
“That never mattered to her. She keeps proof against everyone.”
The rain struck the windshield harder.
“What is in the archive room?” I asked.
Serena went quiet.
“Records.”
“What kind?”
“Everything. Financial files. Medical reports. Private correspondence. Recordings. Your mother doesn’t trust loyalty. She trusts leverage.”
“Why warn us now?”
“Because she knows the investigators secured the servers. The archive is the only thing she has left.”
Brandon glanced at me.
“She’ll destroy it.”
“No,” Serena said. “She won’t destroy it.”
