My Groom Tried to Steal My Family Empire Through Marriage novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Forty-Two Buttons

Marissa laid her phone on the table and pressed play.

The video was forty seconds long. It had been filmed from behind her shoulder on the terrace.

In it, I stood at the arch with a champagne glass in my fist, and I flung my arm toward the camera.

Marissa flinched and covered her face.

Then a voice that sounded exactly like mine said, "I'll ruin you. I'll ruin every one of you."

The clip ended on her sobbing.

"I never said that," I said.

"It's your voice," said the woman in gray.

"It's a splice. I dropped a ring in a glass. I didn't throw anything."

"Brynn." The lead director rubbed his forehead. "Do you want to tell us that this is fake?"

"Yes."

"Can you prove it?"

I opened my mouth, and nothing came.

Marissa wiped her eyes with a tissue. "I didn't want to show it," she whispered. "I only wanted her to get help. Uncle Walter wouldn't have wanted this."

I looked at her ivory shoulders, now covered with a black cardigan.

I wanted to cross the table and take her by the hair.

I felt Brice's hand come down on the back of my chair, firm and quiet, and I stayed where I was.

"The video will go in the file for Monday," the lead director said at last. "I'm sorry, Brynn."

My mother said nothing. She stared at the tablecloth.

We left through the kitchen, because Brice said the lobby would have cameras.

On the way down, his phone buzzed twice. He read it and his face didn't change.

"My man at your building says Preston changed the codes an hour ago," he said. "Your penthouse is locked."

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