She walked up in a simple gray dress, and she looked at me once before she sat down.
I nodded at her, just a small nod, and she took a breath.
“Ms. Keely,” my lawyer said, “can you tell the court what Mr. Carter told you about the source of the money he was spending on you?”
She folded her hands in her lap.
“He told me it was his own money,” she said.
“He said he had a successful business and that he was divorced.
He said his ex-wife was difficult, but that he was free to be with me.”
Dunstan’s lawyer tried to interrupt, but Keely kept going.
“I didn’t know he was married to Ms. Azalea until she walked into the clinic.
I never would have been involved if I’d known the truth.”
She paused, and her voice got quieter.
“He also told me he was moving money to an overseas account so we could start a new life together.
He said it was all his.”
When she stepped down, the courtroom was silent.
Then Miles was called.
He walked in slowly, his shoulders hunched, and he didn’t look at his brother.
My lawyer handed him a stack of documents.
“Mr. Carter, can you identify these?”
Miles nodded.
“These are the original transfer instructions.
Dunstan sent them to me.
He asked me to set up the offshore account and to move the money in small amounts so it wouldn’t be flagged.”
He swallowed hard.
“I did it because he threatened my family.
But I kept copies of everything.”
The judge leaned forward.
“Mr. Carter, are you testifying that your brother directed these transfers?”
“Yes, Your Honor.
Every one of them.”
Dunstan’s face went pale.
He turned to his lawyer and whispered something, but his lawyer just shook his head.
When the judge finally ruled, she didn’t hesitate.
“The court finds that the authorization document is a forgery.
The court grants full control of the company to Ms. Azalea.
Mr. Dunstan Carter is ordered to repay all embezzled funds and is barred from any further involvement in the business.”
I closed my eyes for just a moment.
When I opened them, Dunstan was staring at me.
Outside the courthouse, he caught up to me on the steps.
“Azalea, wait,” he said.
“Please.
We can work this out.
I made mistakes, but I still love you.
We can go back to the way things were.”
I turned and looked at him.
“No,” I said.
“We can’t.”
And I walked away without looking back.
Chapter 10 – The New Beginning
The house sold in three weeks.
I signed the papers at a folding table in the realtor’s office, and the pen felt heavier than it should have.
That house held twenty years of my life, but it also held the echoes of every lie Dunstan told me in that kitchen.
So I let it go.
The money covered most of the debts.
The rest I paid off over the next eighteen months, one payroll cycle at a time.
But I kept the company.
I kept the name on the building, the designs in the vault, the people who had stayed when they could have walked.
And I kept Vera, who worked beside me through every late night and every hard call.
Keely finished her community service in the spring.
She called me the day she got her certificate, and I could hear the relief in her voice.
“I don’t know what I expected,” she said.
Bí quyết thảo mộc mỗi tối để hạnh phúc vợ chồng thăng hoa
Sức Khỏe Nam Giới
Một viên trước khi ngủ, sức mạnh nam giới “nâng cấp” bất ngờ
Sức Khỏe Nam Giới
4 vị trí mọc lông dự báo “ngồi không hưởng lộc”, đừng nhổ!
Brainberries
“But I didn’t expect to feel this light.”
“You earned it,” I told her.
“You told the truth when it would have been easier not to.”
She was quiet for a moment.
“I know I don’t deserve a second chance,” she said.
“But if you ever need someone to run fabric samples or organize the design archive, I’m good at that.
I’m not asking for much.”
I thought about it for a full day before I called her back.
“Come in Monday,” I said.
“We’ll start with an internship.
You’ll earn your way from there.”
She started as a junior designer three weeks later.
She was careful, quiet, and eager to learn.
The other designers didn’t know her history, and I didn’t offer it.
That was hers to tell if she ever chose to.
The divorce was finalized in June.
Dunstan didn’t show up to the final hearing.
His lawyer handed over the signed papers without a word.
