Chapter 4 - The Gaslighting
Brandon had managed to convince Emily that she was losing her mind.
For the final months of her pregnancy, he twisted every valid concern into a symptom of her "hormones."
Whenever Emily saw something that hurt her, Brandon convinced her the real problem was that she had looked.
If she found a restaurant receipt for two expensive meals, he claimed it was just a business dinner.
If she smelled sweet perfume on his heavy winter coat, he swore a female colleague had hugged him at a networking event.
If she discovered a massive hotel charge on their shared credit card, he insisted he had just rented meeting rooms for a crucial client presentation.
He even managed to explain away a deleted text message from Sloan at 1:14 a.m.
He claimed it was a confidential company issue that he legally couldn't discuss with a spouse.
He constantly told Emily she was becoming obsessive and paranoid.
He suggested she needed intense therapy before the babies arrived.
He isolated her from her friends, claiming her stress was bad for the twins.
By the time the eighth month arrived, Emily had completely stopped asking questions.
She retreated inward, focusing entirely on surviving the difficult pregnancy.
She truly believed she was the broken one in the marriage.
But the third file on the USB drive was a masterpiece of hidden revenge.
It wasn't a photo or a recorded phone call.
It was a comprehensive, heavily encrypted spreadsheet that Emily had somehow gained access to.
It detailed a massive slush fund Brandon had been building for the past three years.
He had been embezzling millions of dollars from Alder Crest Health Technologies.
The spreadsheet meticulously tracked every fake invoice and dummy corporation he had created.
But the most shocking column wasn't the stolen money.
It was a list of extremely high-risk investments he had made using the stolen funds.
And every single one of those illegal investments was registered under Emily's name.
He wasn't just cheating on her; he was actively setting her up to take the fall for massive corporate fraud.
Brandon stared at the screen, sweat completely soaking his expensive shirt.
He realized Emily hadn't just run away scared.
She had spent months meticulously gathering the evidence needed to destroy him.
She had played the role of the unstable, hormonal wife perfectly while secretly building a bomb under his entire life.
He grabbed his phone to call his ruthless attorney, desperately needing to get ahead of the fallout.
He scrolled through his contacts, his hands shaking violently.
He tapped the screen, but the call failed to connect.
His phone suddenly displayed a message that his cellular service had been terminated.
He rushed to the window and looked down at the street forty floors below.
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Four black SUVs with heavily tinted windows were violently pulling up to the main entrance of his building.
Men in dark windbreakers with the letters FBI printed in bright yellow were swarming the lobby doors.
