Chapter 9 - The Manila Folder
The entire ballroom went completely silent.
The clinking of silverware stopped, and the low hum of conversation vanished instantly.
Daniel stared at the blue velvet box on the table as if it were a live grenade.
His mother gasped loudly, looking frantically between me, Daniel, and the crying woman standing beside us.
Chloe was shaking with rage, bouncing the crying baby in her arms.
She loudly announced to the entire table that Daniel had proposed to her last week.
She screamed that he had promised to leave his miserable wife and take care of his real family.
Daniel jumped out of his chair, waving his hands wildly.
He started stammering, telling his boss and his parents that Chloe was a crazy stalker.
He pointed at me and said I was emotionally unstable and confused from the pregnancy.
He tried to grab my arm to pull me out of the room.
I stood up abruptly, knocking his hand away with absolute disgust.
I let him finish his pathetic string of lies.
I let him dig his own grave in front of every single person whose opinion mattered to him.
Then, I lifted the thick manila folder from my lap.
I placed it dead center on the white linen tablecloth.
The sound it made against the heavy crystal glasses was small, but Daniel stopped speaking immediately.
His panicked eyes dropped to the folder.
He recognized the logo of his own personal bank printed faintly on the tab.
His father demanded to know what was going on.
I placed my fingers on the cover of the folder and looked Daniel right in his terrified eyes.
I opened the cover and flipped the first page over.
It was a massive, blown-up photograph of the forged lease agreement with his signature underneath mine.
Next to it was the complete spreadsheet of the fifteen thousand dollars he had stolen from his own daughter.
I flipped the next page, revealing the blackmail demands from Marcus and the proof of Daniel's corporate embezzlement.
His boss, sitting just two chairs away, leaned in and read the embezzlement documents.
The older man's face turned completely purple with fury.
He stood up and told Daniel he was fired effective immediately, and that the police would be waiting for him at the office.
Daniel's mother started crying hysterically, covering her face in shame.
Daniel fell back into his chair, utterly ruined and financially destroyed in a matter of seconds.
I picked up Lily, holding her safely against my chest.
I felt a massive wave of absolute victory wash over my soul.
I turned my back on the pathetic man I used to love, ready to walk out the door and start my new life.
But as I took my first step away from the table, Chloe grabbed my arm aggressively.
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She looked at me with a terrifying, twisted smile that sent a spike of ice through my heart.
She leaned in close to my ear and whispered something that made the entire room spin.
