She touched my chin.
Anger surged through me, and I stepped away.
“I was protected from people like you.”
“People like me?”
“People who keep secrets while pretending to love you.”
Claire laughed.
“Richard Hayes taught you that?”
“No,” I said. “Daniel did.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa looked at him with fresh suspicion.
Claire slowly clapped.
“You’re more like me than you think, Emily.”
“We are nothing alike.”
“We both married the same man.”
I didn’t react.
“I didn’t marry him,” Claire said. “I planned him.”
Silence swallowed the room.
A phone rang somewhere in the hallway.
No one moved.
It stopped.
Then mine rang.
Dad.
I declined the call.
Claire glanced at my screen.
“He knows we’re here.”
“He knows a lot of things,” I said. “So do I.”
I pulled the flash drive from my pocket.
“You watched this?” I asked.
Claire frowned.
“What is that?”
“Evidence of your voice. Just like yours.”
I inserted the drive into the boardroom computer.
Her expression darkened.
“That’s not allowed.”
“It’s my company.”
The screen flickered.
Then a recording played.
Claire’s voice filled the room.
“Once Emily is arrested, the board will remove her.”
Daniel’s voice followed.
“And then?”
“Then the assets will be frozen. And you, Daniel, will be her hero.”
The words echoed through the boardroom speakers.
Claire froze.
“Where did you get that?”
