Chapter 8 - The Fall of Preston Vance
By midnight, the ballroom had emptied.
Reporters crowded outside the gates, broadcasting the collapse of Preston’s public image to the entire country.
Inside, attorneys collected documents while investigators sealed the west library and Preston’s private office.
Vanessa attempted to leave through the kitchen.
Martha stood beside the door.
“Your car is at the front entrance,” she said.
“I am not walking through those reporters.”
“That is unfortunate.”
Vanessa returned to the ballroom and found Emily sitting near the fireplace.
The brass basin remained on the marble floor between them.
“You planned this,” Vanessa said.
Emily looked up.
“I prepared for it.”
“You let us think you were weak.”
“You needed to think that. Otherwise, you might have hidden your theft more carefully.”
Vanessa’s confidence flickered.
“Preston made the transfers.”
“You created the companies.”
“He said Hartwell money would cover everything.”
“And you believed him because believing him made you rich.”
Vanessa glanced toward the entrance.
“Are you pressing charges?”
“I submitted the evidence. What happens next will be decided by people neither of us controls.”
Vanessa gave a bitter laugh.
“You’re enjoying this.”
Emily looked at the basin.
“No. I’m remembering how easily everyone watched.”
Vanessa followed her gaze.
For the first time, shame touched her expression.
It did not last.
“You still knelt.”
“Yes,” Emily said. “And now I know exactly who in that room was willing to let me stay there.”
Vanessa left through the front entrance.
The flashes of cameras began immediately.
Preston remained upstairs, refusing to leave the bedroom he considered his.
Emily found him removing watches and documents from a safe.
Two suitcases lay open on the bed.
“You cannot take company property,” she said.
Preston turned.
“This is my house.”
“It belongs to the Hartwell Trust.”
“I renovated it.”
“With corporate funds.”
His face twisted.
“You think that makes you powerful?”
“No. Ownership makes me responsible.”
“You know nothing about running a company.”
“I know enough not to steal from it.”
Preston closed the distance between them, but stopped several feet away.
“You would have nothing without me.”
Emily almost felt sorry for him.
Even now, with his company gone, his lies exposed, and his allies abandoning him, he needed to believe she was the dependent one.
“I had a family, a career, friends, and a future before you,” she said. “You convinced me to surrender them one at a time.”
“I made you important.”
“You made me quiet.”
Preston lowered his voice.
“We can fix this. Keep me as an adviser. We stay married for six months and tell the public the investigation was a misunderstanding.”
Emily shook her head.
“You humiliated me in front of two hundred people while I carried your child.”
“Our child.”
“Then you should have protected both of us.”
He looked at her stomach.
For a moment, fear entered his face.
“What happens when the baby is born?”
“You may request contact through our attorneys. Any arrangement will be based on what is safe and healthy for her.”
“She’s a girl?”
Emily had discovered the baby’s sex weeks earlier. Preston had never attended the appointments.
“Yes.”
His expression softened, but Emily no longer trusted softness that appeared only when he needed something.
“What will you name her?”
“Grace.”
Preston repeated the name quietly.
Then security entered.
He looked at Emily one last time.
“You will regret this.”
May you like
Emily placed her father’s letter on the table beside her.
“No,” she said. “I regret how long it took.”
