Chapter 6 - The Unraveling
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Evan stared at the torn pieces of white paper falling onto the floor like confetti.
"You ruined everything!" he spat out, his face contorting into something ugly and unrecognisable. "Do you have any idea how much money I spent setting this wedding up?! I spent forty thousand dollars on this venue!"
"Correction," I said coldly. "You spent forty thousand dollars of my money from our joint house deposit account."
I looked over at my mother, who was sitting frozen in her chair, tears streaming down her face.
"Did you know about this, Mom?" I asked, my voice cracking slightly.
My mother swallowed hard, looking away. "Peter told me... Peter said Evan was just organizing the family assets, Clara. He said it would help us all buy a house together!"
A bitter laugh escaped my throat. My own family—my brother and my mother—had viewed my dead husband's insurance money as a communal bank account meant to fix their lifelong financial mistakes. They had brought Evan into my life not to love me, but to help them crack open the vault.
"Get out," I whispered.
"Clara..." Peter tried to approach me.
"GET OUT!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Uncle David and three of Mark’s former military buddies immediately stepped forward, forming a wall of muscle between me and the two men.
"You heard the lady," David said, pointing toward the heavy double doors of the ballroom. "Walk. Before I lock you both in the kitchen until the state troopers arrive."
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Evan looked around the room. Not a single person stepped forward to defend him. His father turned his back on him, walking out the side exit in utter shame.
Evan spat on the carpet, adjusted his silk tie, and strode out the main doors, with Peter scuttling behind him like a beaten dog.
