she added.
“I assumed your board would appreciate seeing how you behave when you think no one important is watching.”
For the first time, I saw real panic in Derek’s face.
Tiffany moved farther from him.
“You told me Chloe had ruined you,” she said.
“You said you supported her for years.”
Derek’s head snapped toward her.
“Not now.”
“You said she lived off you.”
I laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“I paid his rent for fourteen months.”
Tiffany looked at the Rolex on his wrist.
“What about that watch?”
“I bought it.”
Derek covered the watch instinctively, as though my words might strip it from him.
“It was a gift,” he said.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Back when I thought loving someone meant helping them become who they claimed they wanted to be.”
Dante’s gaze settled on the watch.
Something cold moved across his face, but he remained silent.
Arthur opened the folder wider.
“There are additional concerns.
The guaranty was used during the restructuring of Mr.
Channing’s first company.
When the loan was transferred, Ms.
Bennett’s name remained attached to the liability.”
My stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that if the company had defaulted, creditors could have pursued you personally.”
I looked at Derek.
He had let me walk away believing our financial ties were finished.
He had watched me move into a smaller apartment and take extra design work to rebuild my savings.
All that time, my name had remained hidden under his success like a trap waiting to close.
“You knew,” I said.
“It was temporary,” he replied quickly.
“The company never defaulted.
You weren’t harmed.”
“You forged her name,” Tiffany said.
“I said she signed it.”
Arthur removed a pen from his pocket.
“Then you will have no objection to providing a handwriting sample and turning over the original file.”
Derek looked toward the door again.
Dante leaned slightly closer to me.
“Do you need air?”
The gentleness in his voice startled me more than his arrival had.
I shook my head.
“I need the truth.”
He nodded once, as though that answer had confirmed something for him.
“Then you will have it.”
Derek heard him and scoffed, trying to recover some of his old arrogance.
“You think you can walk in here and take over because of one night with her? You don’t know Chloe.
She gets emotional.
She exaggerates.
She attaches herself to people who can help her.”
Dante’s hand tightened on the back of my chair.
I touched his wrist.
The movement was small, but he immediately looked at me.
“Let him talk,” I said.
Derek mistook my restraint for fear.
He always had.
“She did the same thing with me,” he continued.
“Paid for things, made sacrifices, then kept score.
Every favor came with guilt attached.”
“Did I ask you to repay the Rolex?” I asked.
“No, but—”
“Did I ask for ownership in your company?”
“You weren’t qualified.”
“Did I tell your investors that I had funded your rent while you called yourself self-made?”
His jaw hardened.
“No,” I said.
“I protected your pride.
Even after you stopped protecting me.”
The room remained silent, but it no longer felt like the silence of people watching a woman being humiliated.
It felt like a jury
