“I will.”
“Good.”
That answer disturbed her more than anger would have.
Kyle returned carrying a document.
His face was gray.
“The house is in a trust.”
“Yes.”
“Your trust.”
“A family trust established before we married.”
He looked down at the divorce papers.
“My lawyers listed it as an asset.”
“Because you told them it was yours.”
“You let me believe it was ours.”
“It was our home.
That’s what I told you.”
“That’s deception.”
I almost laughed at the word.
“You announced your pregnant mistress in front of your wife while handing her secret divorce papers, and you’re accusing me of deception?”
No one looked away this time.
Kyle’s anger finally overpowered his fear.
“You set me up.”
“For what?”
“For this.”
“I didn’t invite Thalia here.
I didn’t plan your divorce.
I didn’t make you humiliate me.
I didn’t make you hurt me.”
I lifted the folder.
“You planned tonight.
I just made a phone call after you finished showing everyone who you are.”
The words landed harder because there were witnesses.
Kyle looked around the hall and seemed to realize, perhaps for the first time, that the audience he’d assembled to watch my humiliation was now watching his.
His board convened an emergency call in the study.
The company’s immediate problem wasn’t insolvency.
It was confidence.
News that a major lender was reviewing waivers and guarantees forced directors to examine risks they had allowed Kyle to wave away.
Several expansion projects depended on continued financing.
A pending acquisition depended on lender consent.
More importantly, Kyle’s treatment of me in front of investors had raised questions about his judgment at exactly the moment his financial authority was being scrutinized.
He tried to join the meeting.
The directors asked him to wait outside while they discussed conflicts.
That humiliation nearly broke him.
“This is my company,” he said.
The older director answered quietly.
“Then you should have read its agreements.”
Thalia disappeared into the powder room for nearly twenty minutes.
When she returned, she no longer stood beside Kyle.
He noticed.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“This is your home now, remember?”
Her eyes moved toward me.
“Apparently it isn’t yours.”
Kyle flinched.
“Thalia.”
“Call me when you’ve fixed this.”
