After the Divorce, I Became His First Love's Sister-in-Law novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Leak
Etienne's POV
"We deny it," my head of communications said. "We say it's a forgery."
"No," I said.
"Mr. Marchand, it's the front page of every gossip site in the city. The photograph shows your handwriting."
"It is my handwriting."
She stared at me across my desk.
"The trust board meets on Friday to confirm you as head of the family. A paper marriage is the one thing your grandmother's terms forbid."
"I know."
"Then deny it."
"No," I said again. "Write this down. Yes, we signed it. Yes, I tore it up this morning, before anyone asked me to. Send that to every desk."
She wrote it down slowly, and she did not look happy.
I had not slept in two days, and I felt wonderful.
I could still feel the carpet of the music room against my knees and Hazel's fingers in my hair.
I had told her I loved her out loud.
She had said it back, with her face wet, and nothing else on earth was going to reach me.
The photographers were waiting on the pavement outside the Marchand Hospitality tower, forty of them, with microphones on poles.
I walked out of the revolving doors alone.
"Mr. Marchand! Is it true? Is your marriage a fake?"
"Did you buy her?"
"Does your wife know you're doing this?"
I stood at the top of the steps with my hands in my pockets and let them shout.
"My wife is the pianist Hazel Fincham," I said. "She is better than anyone in this city, including the woman her ex-husband spent nine years believing in. I asked her to marry me on terms, because I was a coward. This morning I tore the terms up. She stayed."
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