Chapter 7 - Amelia Learned Preston Had Planned to Use Her House Before Proposing
The earliest email was dated six weeks before Preston proposed.
That hurt differently.
He had not decided to use Amelia’s townhouse after financial trouble became desperate.
He had considered it while planning the engagement.
In one message to Veronica:
Amelia’s place has enough equity to solve the bridge problem if she rolls it into marital assets.
Veronica:
Will she?
Preston:
Eventually. She’s cautious, but she trusts me.
Amelia stopped reading.
That sentence destroyed something the kick had not.
She trusts me.
Her trust had been entered into the plan like a line item.
She remembered the proposal.
The restaurant.
The handwritten letter.
Preston telling her she made him feel more honest.
Maybe some of that had been real.
That was what made betrayal difficult.
People do not have to fake every tender moment to exploit you.
Sometimes affection and self-interest exist in the same person.
Preston may have loved Amelia.
He had also decided her assets were useful.
When those loyalties collided—
May you like
he chose usefulness.
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