Chapter 13 - The Pleading Bride
Olivia lunged toward the security turnstiles the moment the glass elevator doors opened, looking like a feral animal trapped behind a glass wall.
“You ruined my life!” she screamed, completely ignoring the stares of the wealthy tech executives and engineers walking through the lobby.
“Julian’s bank accounts are frozen, the feds seized my engagement ring as evidence, and we are being evicted from his penthouse!”
I walked up to the turnstile, keeping a safe distance, and looked at her with a profound, terrifying emptiness.
“I didn't force your husband to embezzle millions of dollars to fund his fake lifestyle, Olivia, he did that entirely on his own.”
“You sent them the recording! You tipped off the SEC!” she shrieked, tears of mascara streaming down her pale, blotchy face.
“Yes, I did,” I admitted openly, my voice calm and echoing off the high marble walls of the lobby.
“Because he tried to blackmail me into committing a cybercrime to save his pathetic career, and I don't protect criminals.”
She gripped the metal bars of the turnstile, her knuckles turning white as her aggressive anger finally gave way to sheer, pathetic desperation.
“Maya, please,” she begged, her voice dropping into a humiliating, trembling whimper.
“Dad’s company is bankrupt, the house is in foreclosure, and Julian is going to federal prison.”
“I have absolutely nothing left, Maya, I can't even afford to hire a divorce lawyer to get away from him.”
She looked up at me with the exact same wide, desperate eyes I used to give my father when I begged him to help me pay for my textbooks.
“I need you to help me, Maya, you are the only one with money now, you have to save us!”
I stared at the sister who had forced me to sit by the kitchen doors, who had tried to get me fired, and who had spent twenty years treating me like a disease.
“When I was eating rice and beans for a week straight because I couldn't afford groceries, did you ever offer to buy me a meal?” I asked softly.
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out, the guilt finally catching up to her selfish, cruel heart.
“When Dad stole my inheritance from Grandma to buy you a brand-new Mercedes for graduation, did you ever wonder where that money came from?”
Her eyes widened in horror, realizing that I knew exactly how my stolen trust fund had been spent over the years.
“I didn't know, Maya, I swear I didn't know he stole it from you!” she cried, sinking to her knees right there in the corporate lobby.
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“Ignorance is not an excuse for cruelty, Olivia,” I said, turning my back on her kneeling form.
“You built your perfect life on the bones of my suffering, and now you can live in the ruins.”
