The room went very, very quiet.
Brooke's face drained of color. "You're a reporter?"
"Investigative journalist." Isabella—if that was even her name—tucked the recorder back into her pocket. "And I have enough footage from tonight to run a very interesting story about how the Sterling family treats the people they claim to help."
"You can't—" Brooke started.
"I can." Isabella smiled, and it was not a kind smile. "Unless, of course, someone wants to give me a better story."
Ethan stared at her. The woman who had crouched beside him, who had asked permission to touch his hand, who had seemed like the only genuine person in the room—she had been working an angle the entire time.
Chap 3: The Girl Who Stayed
Chad's champagne glass slipped from his fingers and shattered on the marble. The sound echoed through the frozen ballroom like a gunshot.
"What?" Chad's voice cracked. "That's—there must be a mistake. I haven't—"
"Chad Miller, you are under arrest for wire fraud, embezzlement, and conspiracy to commit financial crimes against the Sterling Foundation." The man in the suit began reading from the paper, but Chad wasn't listening. He was staring at Brooke.
"Brooke?" His voice was small now. Desperate. "Brooke, tell them. Tell them it wasn't me. Tell them—"
Brooke took a step back. Then another. Her crimson gown whispered against the marble floor.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.
"You set up the accounts! You told me—"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she repeated, louder this time. "I barely know you."
Ethan watched the color drain from Chad's face. He'd seen that expression before—the moment when someone realizes they've been used as a shield. As a scapegoat. As a convenient fall guy.
"You bitch," Chad whispered. "You absolute—"
The officers reached him before he could finish. As they pulled his arms behind his back, Chad's eyes found Ethan's. There was something raw in that look. Something almost like an apology.
"I didn't know," Chad said. "About the wheelchair. I swear. She told me you were just... just some charity case she was stuck with. She said—"
"That's enough," the officer said.
But Chad kept talking, his voice rising as they dragged him toward the door. "She's been planning this for months! The foundation, the accounts—she set it all up so she could blame me when it came out! She knew! She knew—"