Все главы SECRETS OF THE BILLIONAIRE NECKLACE : Глава 21 - Глава 30

Emma found the bank statements by accident. She was at Damien's apartment looking for her laptop charger when she knocked over a stack of mail on the kitchen counter. As she bent to pick it up, an envelope fell out. Her name was on it. Her old name from before she married Damien. Inside were bank statements. She didn't think anything of it at first. Just pulled them out to put them back. Then she saw the date on the first one. Three days after her wedding to Damien. Withdrawal: $2,000,000 Emma's hands went numb. She sat down at the kitchen table and kept reading. More withdrawals. Hundreds of thousands at a time. Sometimes daily. All clustered at the beginning. Right after the marriage. Right after Damien had transferred the ten million dollars. By the end of the first month, $7,000,000 was gone. She read through them three times, hoping each time that the numbers would change. That she'd misread them. That this wasn't real. But it was real. Seven million dollars

Damien stepped in front of Emma without thinking. Claire's hand shook as she held the gun but her eyes were focused. She wasn't going to miss. "Don't do this," Damien said. "You left me no choice," Claire replied. She was staring at him like he was the only person in the room, like Emma didn't exist at all. Emma grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back but he wouldn't move. "I gave you everything," Claire continued. "I protected you. I loved you. And you chose her." "I chose someone I actually love," Damien said. "There's a difference between obsession and love." Claire's finger tightened on the trigger. Emma yanked Damien backward just as the shot went off. The bullet missed him by inches and shattered the window behind them. "Run," Damien said, pushing Emma toward the bedroom. But Emma was already moving. She grabbed a lamp from the side table and threw it at Claire. It missed but it was enough to make Claire hesitate. In that hesitation, Damien lunged forw

Emma locked her apartment door and didn't leave for three days. She didn't answer Damien's calls. She didn't check on Tyler. She sat in her living room and stared at the walls, trying to understand how everything had gotten so broken. Around noon on the third day, there was a knock on her door. "Emma, I know you're in there," Damien said through the door. "Please let me in." She stood on the other side of the door, her hand on the lock, unable to move. "I'm not leaving until you talk to me," Damien continued. Emma opened the door. Damien looked worse than she felt. He hadn't shaved. He was wearing the same clothes from yesterday. His eyes were red. "Come back home," he said. "I can't," Emma replied. "Why not?" "Because I need to think," Emma said. "Because I need to figure out who I am without all of this." Damien moved into the apartment and closed the door behind him. "I understand you're scared," he said. "I'm scared too." "You don't understand," Emma

Margaret's voice on the phone had been calm but there was something underneath it. A threat wrapped in politeness. "Meet me at the manor," she'd said. "Alone. If you bring Damien, I won't talk." Emma had argued but Margaret hung up. Now Emma stood outside Cross Manor in the darkness, understanding that she was about to walk into something dangerous. Damien was supposed to be meeting her there in an hour. They'd agreed he would stay back and let Emma talk to Margaret first, then move in if things got bad. Emma had a panic button on her phone. One press and Damien would come running. She didn't plan on needing it. The manor was exactly as she remembered. Cold stone. Expensive everything. The kind of place that had seen too many secrets. Margaret was waiting in the study. "Thank you for coming," Margaret said. She was sitting in a leather chair, looking like she owned the world. "What do you want?" Emma asked. "To tell you the truth," Margaret replied. "About your hus

Emma opened the envelope slowly. Richard's handwriting was neat. Precise. The handwriting of someone who'd spent years controlling everything, including how he presented himself on paper. Dear Emma, I don't know if you'll ever read this. I don't know if you'll care. But I need to try. I am your biological father. You know that now. What you may not know is that I've known about you since before you married Damien. I had you investigated. I learned everything about you. Your struggles. Your strength. Your refusal to give up even when everything was working against you. And I was proud of you. That's the truth I need you to understand. I didn't orchestrate Margaret's attack because I wanted to hurt you. I orchestrated it because I thought you were getting too close to discovering the truth about Katherine's death. I thought if I removed you from the picture, Damien would stop asking questions. I thought I could protect myself by eliminating the threat. I was completely w