“Yes,” I told Grant.
“I called an attorney.”
He gave a small, disbelieving laugh.
“Over a house?”
“No.
Over a marriage.
The house was simply the first thing you tried to take.”
Brielle stepped closer to him.
“You told me it was yours.”
Her voice was quiet, but the ballroom was quieter.
Grant turned on her.
“Not now.”
Her face hardened.
That was the first crack between them.
I hadn’t caused it.
The truth had.
Grant looked back at me.
“We’ve lived there together for years.
I’ve paid expenses.
I’ve put money into that property.
You cannot just announce that I have no rights.”
“I’m not announcing anything,” I said.
“I’m showing you the record.”
I tapped the deed once with my finger.
“The record existed long before tonight.”
He stepped onto the stage.
Now we were facing each other beneath the same lights where he had held Brielle’s hand minutes earlier.
Up close, I could see the pulse in his jaw.
“Turn off the microphone,” he said.
“You first.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
I looked toward the ballroom.
“It means you made your private choices public when you brought Brielle here as my replacement.
You told donors, investors, employees, friends, and strangers that this was your new beginning.
Then you came to my table and told me where you intended to live afterward.”
I looked back at him.
“I’m correcting one factual error.”
A sound came from the audience.
Not applause.
Something more uncomfortable—a few restrained breaths and chairs shifting as people realized Grant had no graceful way out.
Brielle walked to the bottom of the stage.
“Grant, did you know?”
He ignored her.
That told her everything.
“Did you know the house was hers?”
“Brielle.”
“You said it was marital property.”
Grant’s voice sharpened.
“Because we’ve been married for years.
It’s complicated.”
“It wasn’t complicated when you told me I’d be moving in.”
There it was.
The room heard that too.
Grant closed his eyes for half a second.
He had spent an entire evening constructing a picture of control, and Brielle had just admitted that the plan to move her into Hawthorne House hadn’t been invented at my table.
