Chapter 3 - The Crossroad
Caleb sank heavily into the leather chair beside me, staring blankly at the massive stack of evidence I began projecting onto the wall monitor.
I walked him meticulously through the fake vendor invoices, the severely padded expense accounts, and the phantom payrolls Victoria had created.
He ran a trembling hand through his dark hair, looking exactly like a man whose entire fundamental reality was violently crumbling around him.
“She actively stole from the company?” he whispered, absolutely horrified by the undeniable numbers glowing on the screen.
“She stole directly from Richard, and she stole from your family's professional legacy,” I corrected him gently but firmly.
“And when she finally realized someone was quietly digging into the restricted financial files, she tried to force me out by bullying and humiliating me.”
Caleb slowly turned his head and looked at the angry red and purple mark still highly visible on my swollen cheek.
For the very first time since I met him, a flash of genuine, burning, protective anger appeared in his soft eyes.
He had spent his entire miserable life cowering under his domineering mother's thumb and his cruel sister's massive shadow.
“They are going to try to completely destroy you for this, Emily,” he warned, his voice shaking with genuine terror.
“My mother will gladly burn this entire city to the ground to protect Victoria's reputation and our family name.”
I leaned over the heavy desk, bringing my face just inches from his.
“Let her try to burn it,” I challenged, my voice practically vibrating with icy confidence.
“The real question right now, Caleb, is whose side are you standing on when the fire starts?”
He looked back at the heavy wooden door, then turned his gaze back to the mountain of undeniable, catastrophic proof against his sister.
“I married you,” he said, sitting up a little straighter in his chair.
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“And I am so entirely, deeply sick of being afraid of my own family.”
It was the brave, definitive answer I had been secretly praying for since the day I slipped the wedding ring onto his finger.
