Chapter 3 - The Empire of Lies
For three days, I focused on healing.
I fed Leo.
I slept when I could.
I took slow walks across the recovery suite with a nurse beside me, each step reminding me that my body had been through something enormous.
But while I recovered, my father’s legal and financial teams began uncovering Dominic’s secrets.
Novatek Solutions had presented itself as a revolutionary technology company developing artificial intelligence systems for medical scheduling and patient data management.
Dominic appeared on podcasts.
He gave speeches at startup conferences.
He posted photos beside luxury cars, investors, and famous entrepreneurs.
He had built an entire image around being a self-made genius.
But according to the forensic accounting team, his company was close to collapse.
Payroll had been delayed twice.
Vendor invoices were unpaid.
And much of the software Dominic claimed his company had created had actually been purchased from a struggling overseas developer and rebranded without proper licensing.
Worse, he had been using investor money for personal expenses.
Private flights.
Luxury watches.
A beach rental in Miami.
Natalie’s new apartment.
Victoria’s “consulting fees.”
And the monthly lease payments for an apartment Dominic had rented in Brooklyn.
An apartment I had never heard about.
The private investigator brought me a folder.
Inside were photographs.
Dominic entering the building late at night.
Dominic leaving in the morning.
Dominic holding hands with a woman I recognized from one of his company events.
Her name was Brielle.
She was twenty-six years old and worked in Novatek’s marketing department.
My hands shook as I turned the pages.
I thought I would feel devastated.
Instead, I felt strangely free.
The betrayal hurt, but it also removed the last illusion I had been holding onto. Dominic had not become cruel because of stress. He had not made one selfish mistake.
He had built his life around using people.
When I confronted him, he demanded to see me in person.
Against my lawyer’s advice, I agreed to meet in a private conference room at my father’s legal office. My security detail waited outside the door, and every conversation was documented.
Dominic entered wearing the same expensive suit he had worn when he tried to impress investors.
But now the suit looked borrowed.
His hair was uncombed. His eyes were bloodshot.
He sat across from me and stared at Leo’s photo on my phone.
“I miss him,” he said.
“You have not asked to see him once since I left.”
“I didn’t know you would take this so far.”
I looked at him.
“Take what far?”
“Your father is destroying my company.”
“My father is not destroying your company. Your own records are.”
“You told him to investigate me.”
“I told him you gave me bus fare outside a hospital.”
“You made me look like a monster.”
“You made yourself look like one.”
His face changed.
For a moment, the polished version of Dominic disappeared.
“You have no idea what it’s like to build something from nothing,” he said.
“My father built Brooks Global from nothing.”
“Your father had connections.”
“He had discipline.”
“He had money.”
“He had integrity.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“You think you’re better than me now?”
“No,” I said. “I think I finally know I deserve better than you.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You can’t raise Leo alone.”
“I won’t be alone.”
“You need me.”
“No,” I said. “You need me.”
That sentence hit him harder than I expected.
His eyes narrowed.
Then he said the one thing I had been waiting to hear.
“You know, I only married you because you were easy.”
The room went silent.
He seemed pleased with himself.
“You were grateful for everything. You never asked for expensive things. You never questioned me. You were simple.”
I stared at him.
Then I smiled.
It was not a happy smile.
“You are right about one thing,” I said. “I was easy to underestimate.”
The next week, the story began to break.
Not because my father leaked it.
He did not need to.
Novatek’s board discovered the financial irregularities. The overseas developer filed a lawsuit for intellectual property theft. Former employees reported that Dominic had pressured them to falsify performance data.
Investors pulled out.
The company’s valuation collapsed.
Brielle left him within forty-eight hours of learning that his accounts were frozen.
Natalie moved out of the apartment he had been paying for.
And Victoria began calling me every morning.
At first, she begged.
Then she blamed.
Then she threatened.
“You are destroying my son,” she said during one call.
“No,” I replied. “I am refusing to let him destroy me.”
But the worst was still coming.
Because Dominic had made one final decision.
He filed for emergency custody of Leo.
And in his petition, he claimed that I was emotionally unstable, financially dependent, and unfit to care for our child.
He thought my silence would make me weak.
He did not realize that I had saved every message.
Every call.
May you like
Every receipt.
And every piece of proof that showed exactly who he was.
