Chapter 4 - The Mastermind Arrives
Thirty minutes later, the front door unlocked.
Eleanor, Lauren’s sixty-year-old mother, stepped into the apartment. She was wearing a heavy cashmere coat, her face sharp, wealthy, and fiercely protective.
Eleanor didn't waste time with tears. She took one look at the pale blue jewelry box, the discarded wedding ring, and her exhausted daughter, and she understood exactly what was happening.
"He's with her?" Eleanor asked, her voice a low, dangerous rumble.
"Yes," Lauren nodded, wrapping her arms around her stomach. "He told me he had a client dinner. But he took the pearls."
Eleanor walked over to the clear bassinet, gazing lovingly down at her sleeping grandchildren, Noah and Lily. Then, she turned her sharp eyes back to her daughter.
"You’ve spent three years shrinking yourself to make that arrogant boy feel like a giant, Lauren," Eleanor said, pulling off her leather gloves. "You let him play the big, successful tech CEO. But I think Cole has forgotten exactly whose money built this entire fantasy."
Lauren looked down. "I didn't want him to feel emasculated, Mom."
"Well, he’s about to feel a lot worse than emasculated," Eleanor stated coldly.
Cole was notoriously arrogant. He constantly bragged to his friends about his self-made startup and his luxury high-rise apartment.
But Cole wasn't self-made at all.
When they got married, Lauren’s family trust fund had provided the two-million-dollar seed money for his company. And this luxurious, floor-to-ceiling window apartment? Cole didn't own it.
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"The lease is in my name, Lauren," Eleanor reminded her smoothly. "And the seed money contract you had him sign clearly states that in the event of documented infidelity, his equity in the company reverts entirely to you."
👉 What digital evidence will Lauren uncover to seal her husband's fate?
