Lauren laughs bitterly.
“I’ve been waiting for someone to ask.”
The next forty minutes change everything.
Lauren sends emails, invoices, photos, bank screenshots, and a voice note where Serena jokes about Nathan being “too hungry to count the knives on the table.” In another message, Serena writes that once Silver Coast closes, Nathan will be “useful but disposable.”
I stare at the screen.
For one sharp second, I almost pity him.
Almost.
Then I remember the recording.
Caroline will sign anything once she’s scared enough.
No.
Nathan is not a victim just because the woman he betrayed me with planned to betray him too.
Predators can bite each other.
That does not make either innocent.
At 2:00 p.m., Vivian receives a notice from Nathan’s attorney.
He accuses me of theft, defamation, emotional instability, unauthorized access to firm materials, and abandonment of the marital home. He demands the return of all documents and an end to communication with third parties.
Vivian reads it aloud with the bored expression of someone reading a terrible menu.
Then she drafts a response, two pages long and sharper than screaming.
She attaches my proof of ownership in the Oakridge house.
The forgery report.