Part 2 — Five Minutes Was All I Gave Him

By the time I arrived at Westbridge Legal Group, my hands had stopped shaking.

My hair was still uneven.

Still ruined.

But for the first time in months, I wasn’t thinking about what Adrian had done.

I was thinking about what I was finally going to do.

My attorney, Daniel Brooks, was waiting for me in the conference room.

He looked at my hair.

Then at my face.

He didn’t ask whether I was okay.

He already knew I wasn’t.

Instead, he pushed a folder across the table.

“Everything is ready.”

I opened it.

Inside were financial statements, corporate records, property documents, and copies of agreements Adrian had signed over the past three years.

I stared at the first page.

“This is everything?”

“Everything we’ve been able to document so far.”

I looked up.

“And the emergency injunction?”

“Granted.”

I exhaled slowly.

That was the part Adrian didn’t know.

For months, I had been preparing.

Not because I knew exactly what he would do.

But because I knew eventually he would do something that proved I wasn’t imagining the changes in our marriage.

Daniel leaned forward.

“Claire, there’s something else.”

“What?”

“We found transfers from the company.”

My stomach tightened.

“How much?”

He gave me a number.

I stared at him.

“That can’t be right.”

“It is.”

“Where did the money go?”

Daniel opened another folder.

“Several places.”

He pointed to the first account.

“Vanessa.”

Then another.

“A private consulting company.”

Then another.

“An apartment in her name.”

I stared at the documents.

“Adrian bought her an apartment?”

“Apparently.”

I closed my eyes.

For months, Adrian had told me we couldn’t afford to renovate our kitchen.

He had complained about the cost of insurance.

He had told me we needed to reduce our spending.

Meanwhile, he had been paying for another woman’s apartment.

Daniel continued.

“There are also hotel expenses.”

“How many?”

“Twenty-seven.”

I looked at the dates.

Some were during business trips.

Others were weekends.

One date made me stop.

Our anniversary.

I felt something inside me go cold.

Daniel watched me carefully.

“There is more.”

I didn’t want to hear it.

But I nodded.

He placed a photograph on the table.

It showed Adrian and Vanessa entering a private building downtown.

“What’s this?”

“That’s not a hotel.”

“Then what is it?”

“An apartment complex.”

I stared at the photograph.

Daniel tapped the document beneath it.

“Adrian has been using a second residence for nearly eight months.”

I laughed quietly.

Not because anything was funny.

Because suddenly every unanswered question had an answer.

The late nights.

The secretive phone calls.

The unexplained charges.

The sudden interest in his appearance.

The weekends when he claimed he had “urgent work.”

Everything.

Daniel leaned back.

“You also need to know that the injunction prevents him from moving certain marital and business assets while the case is being reviewed.”

I nodded.

“Good.”

Then my phone rang.

Adrian.

I answered.

“Claire.”

His voice was no longer amused.

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“No.”

“Your attorney just contacted my office.”

“Yes.”

“You can’t do this.”

“I already did.”

There was a long silence.

Then he lowered his voice.

“Come home.”

I almost laughed.

“Why?”

“Because we need to talk.”

“We had years to talk.”

“Claire, please.”

That word almost sounded unfamiliar coming from him.

Adrian Vale didn’t usually say please.

He expected people to obey him.

“Where’s Vanessa?” I asked.

Silence.

“Adrian?”

“She isn’t here.”

I smiled.

“That’s interesting.”

“What is?”

“Because she just walked into your office.”

His breathing changed.

“How do you know that?”

“Because your security director called me.”

Another silence.

Then Adrian whispered:

“Claire, what have you done?”

I looked at Daniel.

He nodded.

I said quietly:

“I stopped protecting you.”

Then I ended the call.

Twenty minutes later, the conference-room doors opened.

Adrian walked inside.

Vanessa was behind him.

Neither looked anything like the confident couple I had seen earlier that afternoon.

Adrian’s tie was loose.

Vanessa’s face was pale.

He stopped when he saw me.

Then his eyes moved to my hair.

For the first time, he seemed genuinely ashamed.

“Claire…”

I raised my hand.

“Don’t.”

He looked at Daniel.

“What is this?”

Daniel answered calmly.

“This is a legal meeting.”

Adrian laughed nervously.

“You’re actually doing this?”

I looked at him.

“You laughed when I gave you five minutes.”

He swallowed.

“I didn’t understand.”

“I know.”

Vanessa suddenly spoke.

“Adrian, maybe we should leave.”

He turned toward her.

“No.”

Then he looked at me.

“Claire and I need to talk.”

I stood.

“You had your chance.”

“Please.”

I shook my head.

“No more private conversations.”

I pushed a folder toward him.

“Read page seventeen.”

He opened it.

His eyes moved across the page.

Then froze.

I watched the color disappear from his face.

Vanessa leaned over.

“What is it?”

Adrian quickly closed the folder.

“Nothing.”

I smiled.

“Tell her.”

He said nothing.

So I did.

“The company paid for the apartment you’ve been living in.”

Vanessa stared at him.

“What?”

Adrian shook his head.

“Claire, stop.”

I continued.

“And the money didn’t come from Adrian’s salary.”

Vanessa looked confused.

“Then where did it come from?”

I looked directly at Adrian.

“Blackwood Logistics.”

Vanessa stepped backward.

“You told me it was your personal money.”

Adrian didn’t answer.

I opened another folder.

“And that’s not even the worst part.”

Daniel slid a document across the table.

Adrian stared at it.

His hands began trembling.

“What is this?”

“An internal audit,” Daniel said.

Adrian looked at me.

“Where did you get this?”

I smiled.

“From the company.”

His expression changed.

“Who gave it to you?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me.”

I leaned forward.

“You should have thought about that before you used company money to build a secret life.”

Adrian stood abruptly.

“You don’t understand what you’re doing.”

“I understand perfectly.”

“No, you don’t.”

His voice became angry.

“You’re destroying everything I’ve built.”

I looked at him for several seconds.

Then I said:

“No, Adrian.”

“You did that yourself.”

He stared at me.

I thought that was the end.

Then Daniel received a notification.

He read it.

His expression immediately changed.

“What?”

I asked.

He looked at me.

“We have a problem.”

“What kind?”

He turned his laptop toward me.

An email had just arrived from Blackwood Logistics’ board.

It contained one sentence:

Emergency board meeting scheduled for 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.

But beneath it was an attachment.

Daniel opened it.

I read the first line.

Then my heart stopped.

The board wasn’t meeting to discuss Adrian’s affair.

They weren’t meeting about the company money.

They weren’t even meeting about the apartment.

They were meeting because someone had discovered that Adrian had been attempting to transfer control of the company to another entity.

And that entity was owned by a person whose name I had never expected to see.

I looked at Adrian.

He was staring at the screen.

Then I asked the question that made him finally break.

“Who is Marcus Vale?”

Adrian’s face went completely white.

Vanessa looked at him.

“Who’s Marcus?”

He didn’t answer.

I looked at Daniel.

“Who is he?”

Daniel hesitated.

Then he said:

“Adrian’s older brother.”

I frowned.

“Adrian told me he was dead.”

The room went silent.

And Adrian finally whispered:

“He was supposed to be.”