Chapter 9 - THE MONEY
Dylan did not fund Brooke with Chloe’s money.
That twist would have been easy.
Reality was cleaner.
Dylan paid:
hotel suites,
jewelry,
travel,
rent on a second apartment used occasionally.
Mostly from his personal account.
Marital law would decide what portion mattered in settlement.
No secret theft.
No massive fraud.
Then Chloe found one expense that mattered emotionally.
A charitable contribution.
$25,000 to the Palmer Family Housing Initiative.
There was no such registered charity.
It was a donor-advised fund subaccount Brooke asked Dylan to name.
Why?
She told him it honored her “late father’s passion for housing.”
Jacob was alive.
Homeless.
The money had gone to a legitimate housing nonprofit through the fund.
No embezzlement.
The donation did good.
But the story around it was grotesque.
Brooke had created a philanthropic memorial to a living father she refused to answer.
Jacob looked at the record.
He did not get angry.
He laughed until tears came.
Brooke cried.
Chloe watched.
Then Jacob said:
“At least someone got rent.”
That sentence broke Brooke more than condemnation would have.
Then Dylan said:
“I didn’t know.”
Chloe turned.
“You keep saying that.”
“I didn’t.”
“You didn’t know who Brooke was.”
“No.”
“You didn’t know what your father knew about Jacob.”
“No.”
“You didn’t know how much I knew about your travel.”
“No.”
“You didn’t know your own marriage was ending until I hit you with a tray.”
Dylan looked ashamed.
Chloe continued:
“At some point, not knowing becomes something you maintain.”
May you like
Jacob looked at her.
That was the line he had spent twenty years trying to say about powerful people.
