Chapter 37 - The Broken MythAlexander sat in the drawing room for two hours, reading every single page of the forensic audit.
The silence in the house was heavy and suffocating. Emily and Evelyn waited in the adjacent office, giving him the space to process the absolute destruction of his family’s myth.
When Alexander finally walked into the office, he looked like a man who had been physically beaten. The polished, confident human rights lawyer was gone, replaced by a son who had just realized his entire life was underwritten by lies.
“Sixty million,” Alexander choked out, his voice barely a whisper. “She owes sixty million dollars to offshore syndicates. She’s been lying to me for ten years.”
Emily walked over, placing a gentle hand on his arm. She felt no triumph in exposing Josephine; she only felt sorrow for the man she loved.
“Alexander, I am so sorry.”
“She didn't want a wedding,” Alexander said, tears of profound betrayal welling in his eyes. “She wanted a bank transfer. She was going to use our marriage to loot the foundation. She was going to steal from the abuse victims you swore to protect, just to save her social standing.”
“She hasn't stolen anything yet,” Arthur reminded him firmly. “But the newspaper article is step one. She’s laying the groundwork to challenge Emily’s mental competency. We have to hit back, hard and publicly, before the attorney general launches an investigation.”
Alexander wiped his eyes, his posture straightening as his legal instincts finally overrode his grief.
“She wants a public war?” Alexander said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, icy register that perfectly mirrored his mother’s. “Then we give her one. But we don't fight her in the press. We fight her where she’s most vulnerable.”
“Where is that?” Emily asked.
“The Blackwood Autumn Gala,” Alexander stated. “It’s tomorrow night. She’s hosting five hundred of the city’s wealthiest elites at our estate to project an image of absolute financial invincibility. It’s her ultimate facade.”
Emily looked at him, seeing the fierce, unbreakable resolve in his eyes. He was choosing the truth over his bloodline.
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“What do we do?” Emily asked.
“We accept our invitations,” Alexander smiled, a cold, calculated expression. “And we burn her facade to the ground.”
