I looked at her.
“You spent a year reading my private emails. I’m disappointed.”
Derek returned to the report.
“Whitmore was planning to buy our distressed debt.”
“Yes.”
“And Caleb knew?”
“Yes.”
He turned to Sloane.
“What was the plan?”
She shook her head.
“Sloane.”
Finally she said, “Caleb believed Whitmore would force a restructuring. He said if we acquired enough of the secondary debt first, we could make money when it happened.”
“We?”
“Caleb and me.”
Derek looked at the page again.
“You used my company’s credit to purchase debt against my company.”
“I was trying to save it.”
“This account received twelve million dollars.”
“My brother—”
“Your name is on the account.”
My daughter started crying again.
Derek shouted, “What the hell were you thinking?”
Evelyn startled.
Derek immediately stopped.
He looked at her.
Then at me.
“I’m sorry.”
It was the first apology from him in years that sounded real.
It wasn’t for me.
It was for frightening the baby.
Strangely, that hurt.
Sloane stepped toward him.
He moved away.
She noticed.
“So that’s it?” she asked. “One baby appears and suddenly I’m the enemy?”
Derek looked at her wedding dress.
Then at the financial report in his hands.
“You told me you were pregnant.”
“I was.”
“Show me.”
“What?”
“Show me the medical record.”
“I miscarried.”
“Then show me that.”
Her face collapsed.
Derek’s voice lowered.
“Was there ever a child?”
Sloane said nothing.
“Sloane.”
“No.”
The answer was barely audible.
Derek looked as though something inside his body had simply switched off.
“No?”
“I knew you wouldn’t leave her.”
“I was already having an affair with you.”
“That wasn’t enough!”
Her scream filled the room.
Then she saw Evelyn flinch and lowered her voice.
“You kept saying Rachel had suffered enough. You kept delaying. You kept saying you needed time. I knew if you thought I was carrying your child, you’d finally choose.”
Derek stared at her.
“And I did.”
“Yes.”
“You let me mourn a baby who never existed.”
Sloane began sobbing.
Derek turned toward the window.
For one terrible second, I felt satisfied.
Then I remembered what it had been like to lose pregnancies of my own.
Grief looked ugly on everyone.
Even people who had earned their consequences.
“What happens now?” Derek asked.
“With Sloane?”
“With the company.”
“Whitmore closes the debt acquisition Monday.”
“And?”
“Existing executive leadership will be removed.”
“You mean me.”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened.
“You’re taking my company.”
“No. I’m keeping creditors from breaking it apart and selling the pieces.”
“My father built that company.”
“Your father founded it. You overleveraged it.”
I nodded toward the report.
“You hid liabilities. Expanded when you didn’t have the capital. Gave your mistress and her brother executive access without proper oversight.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
I considered lying.
“A little.”
He almost smiled.
“At least you’re honest now.”
“I learned during the divorce.”
Sloane whispered, “What happens to me?”
I looked at her.
“My attorneys delivered the evidence to federal investigators yesterday.”
Her hand moved to her mouth.
“What evidence?”
“Forged authorizations. False disclosures. Wire transfers.”
“No.”
“Sloane—”
“No, Rachel, you don’t understand. Caleb said everything could be justified.”
“Then Caleb can explain it.”
Her phone rang.
She looked down.
Her face went white.
Derek took the phone from her.
“Caleb.”
He answered on speaker.
A frantic male voice erupted through the room.
“Sloane, where are you? Federal agents are inside my condo. They took my laptop. They have everything.”
Derek ended the call.
