Chapter 4 - The Betrayal Within
"Gavin..." Raymond whispered, his voice cracking with a terrifying mixture of disbelief and rage. "What did she just say?"
The garden was filled with panicked whispers as high-society guests began exchanging horrified glances. Florence stood frozen near the wooden table, her hand still holding the antique gold signet ring, her face looking as though it had been carved from white marble.
"Raymond, listen to me—" Gavin began, taking a step backward into the doorway.
"You set this up?!" Raymond roared, charging across the lawn like a madman. He grabbed his younger brother by the lapels of his jacket, slamming him hard against the wooden frame of the terrace door. "You paid thirty thousand dollars to forge a paternity test?!"
"Let go of me, Raymond!" Gavin choked out, trying to pry his brother's hands off his throat. "You idiot! Look at yourself! You were so obsessed with having a boy—so desperate to show up Brenda and prove you were the big man—that you swallowed whatever lie was put in front of you!"
"Why?!" Raymond screamed, his eyes bloodshot. "Why would you do this to your own family?!"
Gavin laughed—a bitter, jagged sound that cut through the garden. "Because you were ruining the company! You and Mother were pushing Brenda Miller out—the only person in this pathetic family who actually knew how to run Pacific Oak Crafting! I knew that if you got your hands on full control of the factories without Brenda, you’d bankrupt us within a year! I brought Brenda Vance into your life to distract you! To keep you busy while I arranged my own buyout!"
In the middle of the lawn, Brenda Vance turned and tried to slip quietly toward the side gate, clutching the crying three-year-old in her arms.
"Stop her!" Florence shrieked, suddenly snapping out of her trance. Her voice was shrill, unhinged, filled with the fury of a woman whose entire world had just turned into ash. "Stop that treacherous woman!"
Two of Raymond’s cousins stepped into the driveway, blocking Brenda Vance's escape route.
"You..." Florence gasped, walking toward Brenda Vance with her finger pointed like a dagger. "You brought a stranger's bastard into my house? You let me hold him? You let me call him my grandson?!"
Brenda Vance backed against the iron gate, tears of anger and fear streaming down her face. "You wanted a boy, didn't you?!" she spat back, dropping all pretense of sweetness. "You treated Raymond's wife like dirt for sixteen years because she gave you girls! You made it so easy, Florence! All I had to do was tell Raymond he was a big, strong man and show him a piece of paper, and he gave me a diamond ring, an apartment in La Jolla, and ten thousand dollars a month!"
Florence staggered backward as if she had been slapped across the face. She clutched her chest, her breathing labored, gasping for air as her daughter-in-law's words exposed the ugly truth behind her lifelong obsession.
Raymond let go of Gavin, stumbling away toward the central wooden table. He looked at the antique signet ring resting in the velvet box. He looked at the champagne tower. He looked at the sixty guests who were now looking at him with utter disgust and pity.
Sixteen years of marriage. Four devoted daughters who loved him. A brilliant, capable wife who had built a multi-million-dollar business from the ashes of his father's debt.
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He had thrown it all away in a single morning.
And across the country, thousands of feet in the air, the plane carrying Brenda Miller and her four daughters was entering Arizona airspace.
