Chương 8
Not with Sienna’s expression.
That looked exactly how I expected.
Shock.
Fear.
Confusion.
The wrongness was in the way she held the papers.
Not like someone who had received them.
Like someone who had been forced to carry them.
“Claire.”
Dominic’s voice pulled me back.
I looked up.
“What?”
“You recognize something.”
I looked at him.
“How did you know?”
“Because you stopped breathing for a second.”
I looked away.
“I used to watch her.”
Dominic did not react.
Not with judgment.
Not with surprise.
Just waited.
“Not because I was obsessed.”
“I didn’t think that.”
“I wanted to know if I was imagining things.”
“Were you?”
I swallowed.
“No.”
The answer was harder to say than I expected.
“Before the divorce, I noticed small things.”
“Like what?”
I looked at the photo again.
“Sienna never looked at Grant the way people look at someone they love.”
Dominic stayed quiet.
“She looked at him like she was waiting for approval.”
“That is different.”
“Yes.”
I touched the edge of my phone.
“Everyone thought she won.”
Dominic frowned slightly.
“Won?”
“Me being replaced.”
The words sounded uglier out loud.
“I think that was the story people wanted.”
“What story?”
“That I lost.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“You didn’t.”
I looked at him.
He did not say it dramatically.
He said it like a fact.
That almost made it harder to accept.
My phone buzzed again.
Another article.
Another notification.
Another person turning my private life into public entertainment.
I almost threw the phone across the room.
Instead, I placed it face down.
“I hate this.”
“I know.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“I hate that they get to decide what this means.”
Dominic nodded.
“That is why we need facts before anyone else creates the story for you.”
I looked toward Lily.
“She is a baby.”
“Yes.”
“She cannot defend herself.”
“No.”
My voice became quieter.
“So I have to.”
Dominic did not disagree.
That was what made the responsibility feel real.
Not a dramatic promise.
Not a speech.
Just a fact.
A few minutes later, the man who had come to the apartment earlier returned.
This time he entered without hesitation.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
The man placed a folder on the table.
“We found the source of the leak.”
My body went tense.
“Who?”
He looked uncomfortable.
“Before I answer, there is something you need to know.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Say it.”
“The documents were not stolen from the hospital.”
I frowned.
“Then where?”
The man opened the folder.
“From Kingsley Holdings.”
A strange calm came over me.
Not relief.
Something colder.
Because part of me had already known.
“Someone inside his company did this.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
The man hesitated.
Dominic noticed.
“Stop protecting whoever it is.”
“I’m not.”
“Then speak.”
The man looked at me.
“It was Sienna Vale.”
The room became silent.
I stared at him.
“No.”
The word left my mouth before I could think.
The man opened the folder.
“We traced the internal access.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
I looked at the papers.
“She wouldn’t.”
Dominic watched me carefully.
Not because he thought I was naive.
Because he understood something I did not want to admit.
I was not defending Sienna.
I was defending the idea that there had to be limits to how badly people could betray each other.
“How do you know?” Dominic asked.
I looked at him.
“Because she hated me.”
The honesty surprised me.
“She had no reason to protect me.”
The room went quiet.
That was the problem.
It made sense.
The people closest to the truth were not always the people who cared.
Sometimes they were the people with the most to gain.
The man opened another page.
“There is more.”
Of course there was.
There was always more.
“What?”
“Sienna did not send the documents to the media.”
I looked confused.
“Then who did?”
“We are still investigating.”
Dominic took the folder.
“Why would she access them?”
The man hesitated.
“Because she was looking for something else.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“Proof that Grant lied to her.”
That changed everything.
I sat back slowly.
“She was investigating him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The man looked toward Dominic.
“Because she found out Grant had been hiding financial problems.”
Dominic took the papers.
I watched his eyes move across the page.
“You knew.”
It was not an accusation.
It was an observation.
Dominic did not deny it.
“I suspected.”
“How long?”
“A few weeks.”
I looked away.
Another secret.
Another person deciding what information I could handle.
The anger rose again.
But this time it was mixed with disappointment.
“Why does everyone think I cannot know things?”
Dominic’s face changed.
“You’re right.”
“I’m tired of hearing that.”
“I know.”
I almost smiled despite myself.
“Stop saying that.”
“I’ll try.”
It was the closest thing to a joke he had made all day.
It disappeared quickly.
“Sienna may not have leaked those documents,” he said.
“But she started looking.”
“Why?”
“Because she realized she was not the exception.”
I looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“Grant did the same thing to her that he did to you.”
I waited.
“He created a version of reality where he was always the victim.”
I thought about the woman in the photograph.
Standing outside the church.
Holding evidence against the man she was supposed to marry.
“She found out he lied.”
“Yes.”
“About what?”
Dominic looked at the papers.
“About why he divorced you.”
The words landed slowly.
“What?”
“He told Sienna the marriage ended because you refused to accept that you could not have children.”
My stomach tightened.
“And?”
“And that was not true.”
I looked at Lily.
My daughter slept peacefully.
“She knew.”
Dominic nodded.
“She found proof that you were pregnant before the divorce was finalized.”
The room felt strangely quiet.
Not because I was shocked.
Because I was trying to understand.
Sienna had known.
May you like
The woman who helped destroy my marriage had known I was not broken.
“She still married him.”
