Adrian’s phone began vibrating.
Then Celeste’s.
Then Marcus’s.
Mine remained silent.
Thirty minutes after they had laughed at me, the valet manager entered carrying three key envelopes and asked, in front of everyone, “Mrs. Vale, where would you like your vehicles delivered?”
I looked at Adrian.
“Anywhere he isn’t.”
Adrian followed me into the corridor, no longer performing for the crowd.
“Eleanor, wait.”
I kept walking.
He caught up near the marble staircase. “You planned this.”
“I prepared for it.”
“You were going to destroy me no matter what happened tonight.”
I turned. “No. I was going to give you the audit tomorrow morning and offer you one chance to resign quietly.”
His face changed.
That hurt him more than being fired.
“You would have let me walk away?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
From the ballroom came a burst of voices. Reporters were already gathering near the entrance.
I held his gaze. “Because you put your mistress on a stage, used a company celebration to humiliate your wife, and promoted her while she was benefiting from undisclosed corporate payments. You turned private betrayal into corporate misconduct.”
Vanessa appeared behind him. “Adrian, tell her the apartment wasn’t paid through the company.”
He said nothing.
