Chapter 5
“Yes.”
“And you came here to lecture me?”
“No. I came here because Nathan’s wrongdoing does not magically make every decision you made wise.”
I stood.
“Get out.”
Marcus closed the folder.
“Tell outside counsel yourself before Nathan tells them.”
“Leave.”
He left.
I hated him for eleven hours.
Then I called outside counsel.
June had already disclosed everything.
I accepted responsibility.
June received a written warning.
So did I.
And then Nathan’s lawyers made the mistake that saved us.
They claimed the agenda never existed.
That allowed investigators to retrieve the original from the secure printer memory and board portal.
It matched June’s copy exactly.
The metadata showed Nathan had drafted my termination proposal two weeks before he ended our engagement.
That changed everything.
He had not fallen unexpectedly in love with Laya after Miles’s birth.
The wedding, the trust filing, my removal, and the company sale had been planned as one sequence.
The next surprise arrived at my front door in the rain.
Laya.
She wore sunglasses and carried no umbrella.
“Where’s Miles?” I asked.
“With my sister.”
“You should speak through your attorney.”
“I need to speak to you.”
“You married Nathan.”
“That doesn’t mean I know him.”
I almost shut the door.
Instead, I let her inside.
Her hair was damp.
Without the wedding makeup and cameras, she looked younger than thirty.
And exhausted.
“Nathan thinks I’m taking Miles to the pediatrician.”
“You lied to your husband six weeks into marriage?”
Her mouth twisted.
“Apparently, lying is one of our shared interests.”
I said nothing.
She removed her sunglasses.
Her eyes were swollen.
“Theo and I were involved before I worked at Vale.”
“I know.”
“No, you know the report. You don’t know what happened.”
“I don’t need your romantic history.”
“You do if you want to understand Nathan.”
That got my attention.
Laya sat on the bench beside my front door.
“Theo told me he was separated.”
“He wasn’t.”
“No.”
She looked down.
“When his wife found out, he said I had misunderstood everything. I hated him. Then Vale Biomedical posted the assistant position. I needed better health insurance because my mother was sick.”
“So you applied to work for his brother.”
“I wanted Theo uncomfortable.”
“At least that’s honest.”
“Nathan noticed me.”
“So you slept with him.”
“Not immediately.”
“Eventually is enough.”
She took the insult without defending herself.
“When I became pregnant, Theo told me to handle it.”