Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN WHO SENT THE PHOTOS
Brooke had sent the envelope.
Audrey almost walked out.
Instead she sat.
Brooke entered the conference room no longer smug.
Pregnant.
Tired.
Still elegant.
Audrey stared.
“You sent me the pictures.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Grant was going to marry me.”
Audrey laughed.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does.”
Brooke explained.
Grant promised to separate from Audrey after the Harrow Point financing closed.
Then Brooke discovered Walter would never accept her without a paternity test.
Grant kept delaying.
Thomas grew more threatening.
Nathan wanted leverage.
Everything closed around her.
Then Brooke realized the simplest way to force movement was to make Audrey act.
She knew Audrey had been suspicious.
So she sent proof.
“Why not just tell me?”
“Because you wouldn’t trust me.”
Audrey stared.
“Correct.”
Brooke almost smiled.
Then:
“I needed you angry.”
There.
Audrey’s rage had been engineered too.
The photos on the walls.
The knife through paper.
The mass message.
Brooke expected Audrey to explode publicly.
Maybe destroy Grant.
Maybe release corporate video.
Maybe create enough scandal that everyone’s secrets became negotiable.
Audrey said:
“You wanted me to look crazy.”
“At first.”
“And then?”
“I realized Thomas was going to blame everything on me.”
So Brooke started sending fuller recordings.
Self-preservation.
Not redemption.
Then Audrey asked:
“Did you love Grant?”
Brooke looked down.
“Yes.”
That surprised her.
“Did you know the baby wasn’t his?”
“No.”
“Did you hope it was?”
“Yes.”
Grant had represented wealth, legitimacy, escape from Thomas’s mess.
Then Brooke said:
“You think I wanted your life.”
Audrey almost laughed.
“You slept with my husband in my house.”
“I wanted the version of him you had before he became afraid of everything.”
Audrey stared.
“That version doesn’t exist.”
Brooke nodded.
“I know.”
Then she offered evidence.
Original files.
Unedited.
Cloud backups.
Messages with Thomas.
Messages with Nathan.
Messages with Grant.
In exchange, her lawyer wanted Audrey to support a civil confidentiality arrangement regarding certain intimate material.
Audrey refused.
“I’m not bargaining away my story.”
Brooke looked at Maya.
Maya said:
“She doesn’t have to.”
Then Brooke said one thing that changed Audrey’s strategy.
“Grant has a file on you.”
Audrey’s face hardened.
“What file?”
“Medical. Therapy. Marriage counseling. Photos of the walls tonight if his security team got inside.”
Audrey went still.
Grant had been preparing to portray her as unstable in divorce.
Brooke knew because Grant showed her.
Then Audrey stood.
“Meeting over.”
May you like
She went straight to Grant.
He did not deny it.
