“Eight months after divorcing me because I “couldn’t give him a family,”

The sentence changed him.

His face collapsed.

“What?”

She looked at me with hatred.

Then at Ryan.

“You wanted children.”

“That doesn’t answer me.”

“You were going to lose everything.”

“What everything?”

Patricia laughed.

A harsh, desperate sound.

“The company. The house. The life you built.”

Ryan stared at her.

“I built?”

She turned toward him.

“You think Brooks Development survived because you were brilliant?”

His face changed.

“You were drowning three years ago.”

“Mom.”

“Your investors were leaving. Banks were closing credit lines. You had six months.”

Lauren stared at Ryan.

“Is that true?”

He didn’t answer.

Patricia did.

“Mia’s money saved him.”

Ryan looked at me.

I felt surprisingly little.

Patricia continued.

“You would have lost everything. I found a way to protect you.”

“You stole from her.”

“I moved money.”

“You forged documents!”

“She was your wife.”

“That doesn’t make it mine!”

For the first time since I met him, Ryan sounded genuinely horrified by his own family.

Patricia’s eyes hardened.

“Don’t pretend morality now.”

He flinched.

“You signed documents.”

“What documents?”

“You never read half the things I put in front of you.”

Ryan stopped breathing.

I remembered.

Business papers.

Tax forms.

Fertility paperwork.

Ryan signing while answering emails.