Chapter 5 - The Annulment
I handed the first envelope to Mila.
I handed the second to Axton.
“Go ahead,” I said smoothly. “Open them.”
Mila opened hers first, expecting a spa voucher or plane tickets.
Instead, she pulled out an 8x10 glossy photograph of her and Axton kissing in Aspen.
Behind it was the property deed in her name.
Mila’s face turned the color of ash.
The envelope slipped from her fingers, the papers scattering across the white tablecloth.
My mother looked down at the photos.
“Mila?” my mother whispered, her voice trembling. “What is this?”
“It’s Mila’s new house,” I said, my voice echoing loudly through the speakers. “Paid for by my husband during his fake work trips.”
The rooftop went dead silent.
Axton tore open his envelope.
He didn't find photographs.
He found annulment papers based on extreme fraud.
And beneath them, a notice from the SEC.
“Callie, stop!” Axton yelled, lunging forward. “Turn the microphone off!”
“I’m not Callie,” I said, looking him dead in the eye. “You made that perfectly clear last night.”
Axton froze.
“The fifty million dollars stays in my trust,” I told him, loud enough for his parents and his investors to hear. “And Rowan Hale says hello. The federal agents are raiding your corporate office as we speak.”
Axton’s father dropped his champagne glass. It shattered on the stone floor.
Mila began to sob, reaching out for me. “Callie, please, it meant nothing—”
“You mean nothing,” I corrected her softly.
I didn’t stay to watch the fallout.
I set the microphone on the table, picked up my purse, and walked toward the elevator.
Behind me, the perfect wedding collapsed into screaming, crying, and absolute ruin.
I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby.
May you like
I was no longer Mrs. Axton Callaway.
I was just a woman who had burned her betrayers to the ground, and for the first time in three years, I could finally breathe.
