My stomach plummeted. The room didn’t just spin; it completely dropped out from beneath me. The blood roared in my ears so loudly I could barely hear the screams erupting around me.
I looked at my phone sitting on the table. We had been saving for three years to put a down payment on a modest house before the baby arrived. Caleb was risking his life in a combat zone, sleeping in the dirt, earning that hazard pay to secure our family’s future.
And they had stolen it. They hadn’t just mocked my pregnancy; they had financially gutted my husband while he was fighting a war, all to pay for a party.
“It’s a lie!” Vanessa shrieked.
The sound was animalistic. She lunged forward, her heavy, hand-beaded lace dress tangling around her legs. She stumbled, nearly falling, but caught herself on a table, screaming hysterically.
“Julian, don’t listen to him!” Vanessa wailed, tears of pure, unadulterated panic ruining her pristine makeup, leaving dark black streaks down her cheeks. “He’s crazy! He’s making it up! I love you! The money is real! We’re rich!”
Julian looked at the woman he had married less than two hours ago. He didn’t look at her with love. He looked at her as if she were a venomous snake that had just bitten him.
He took a massive, definitive step backward, holding his hands up defensively.
“You stole from my company?” Julian yelled, his voice cracking with rage and betrayal. He pointed a shaking finger at her. “You stole from your own brother while he is deployed in a war zone?! What kind of sick, twisted monster are you?!”
