Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED TWO BROTHERS
“Four hundred eighty thousand dollars?”
Brianna stared at the bank receipt.
Her face had gone completely white.
Sebastian stood across from her in the mansion's morning room.
He'd dismissed the household staff.
Only Marcus and I remained with Evelyn, who sat near the window.
Brianna looked from the receipt to Sebastian.
“Where did you get this?”
“Archive Room 32.”
Her expression changed.
“Your mother kept those records?”
“Yes.”
She slowly sat down.
For the first time since the engagement party, she looked genuinely frightened.
Sebastian placed the wedding photograph beside the receipt.
“Start with Adrian.”
Brianna pressed her fingers against her temples.
“I met him eight years ago. I was working in compliance for Russo Shipping.”
“You told me you met him once at a company luncheon.”
“I lied.”
“Seven years ago, you married him.”
“Yes.”
“And you never divorced.”
She shook her head.
Sebastian's voice remained quiet.
“Then why did you agree to marry me?”
Brianna looked up.
“Because I believed he had abandoned me.”
Sebastian waited.
She glanced at the photograph.
“Adrian found irregularities in the foundation's accounts. He thought somebody was using the relief money to keep the company's failing terminals open.”
“Somebody?”
“Your father.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Brianna continued.
“Adrian said we should take the evidence to federal investigators. I was terrified. I was twenty-nine, newly married, and convinced I'd lose everything.”
Sebastian leaned against the mantel.
“So you reported him to Father.”
Brianna's silence answered.
She wiped her cheeks.
“I thought your father could explain the transfers. I didn't believe he'd hurt his own son.”
“What happened?”
“Three nights later, Adrian disappeared. Your father told me he'd taken the money and fled.”
“Did you believe him?”
“At first.”
Sebastian placed the bank receipt in front of her.
“And the payment?”
Brianna looked down.
“Your father called it a settlement.”
“For what?”
“For my silence.”
The words hung in the room.
“I didn't want the money,” she said. “I was told that if I refused it, I'd be accused of helping Adrian steal from the foundation.”
Sebastian folded his arms.
“So you accepted.”
“Yes.”
“And then you spent seven years living comfortably with the man who destroyed your marriage.”
Her expression hardened.
“You make it sound simple. I lost my husband. I lost my career. People whispered that I was the criminal's wife.”
“Yet you let me believe you'd never been married.”
“I thought if I could get close to the family again, I could finally learn what happened.”
Sebastian shook his head.
“You could have told me.”
“You would have gone straight to your father.”
He couldn't immediately deny it.
That hurt him more than her accusation.
Brianna looked toward me.
“Why is she here?”
Sebastian answered.
“Because Lauren found evidence you've been hiding.”
“She's a housekeeper.”
“And you're still another man's wife.”
Brianna flinched.
He continued.
“You ordered her to kneel before eighty-two people. You threatened her livelihood. You tried to throw an invited elderly woman out of my house.”
Brianna looked away.
“I was afraid Mrs. Porter would expose the wedding before I could find out what happened to Adrian.”
“So you decided she deserved humiliation?”
“No.”
“Then why did you do it?”
Her voice broke.
“Because I couldn't control anything else.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Brianna turned toward me.
“I knew your father was sick, Lauren. I knew you couldn't afford to lose this job.”
I stared at her.
She had known.
She'd used my father's stroke against me.
“You weren't frightened of me,” I said. “You were sure I couldn't fight back.”
Brianna began crying.
“I know.”
I didn't comfort her.
An explanation wasn't an apology.
And an apology wouldn't erase what she'd done.
Sebastian picked up the foundation records.
“Your access to every Russo account is suspended. The engagement is over.”
Brianna looked at him in disbelief.
“Sebastian—”
“I don't marry someone who's already married to my brother.”
She covered her face.
For a moment, I almost felt sorry for her.
Then she said, “You still don't understand your father.”
Sebastian stopped at the doorway.
“Tell me something I don't know.”
Brianna opened her handbag.
She removed a folded sheet of paper.
It was a recent ferry ticket attached to a photograph.
The picture showed a gray-haired man wearing a dark wool coat outside a marina office.
He was older than the groom in Evelyn's wedding portrait.
His hair had silver at the temples.
But his face was unmistakable.
Adrian Russo.
The photograph was dated three weeks earlier.
Sebastian stared at it.
“Where did you get this?”
Brianna's voice trembled.
“I hired someone to look for him.”
“Where?”
“New London, Connecticut.”
Sebastian's hand tightened around the photograph.
“You knew my brother was alive?”
“I only received confirmation last month.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“I was afraid he'd disappear again.”
Sebastian studied the ferry ticket.
Then he noticed a handwritten message on the back.
Tell Sebastian the watch wasn't broken in the accident.
He looked up sharply.
“What accident?”
May you like
Brianna swallowed.
“The one your father told everyone never happened.”
Related Stories
