Chapter 5 - Lauren Chase
The affair surfaced because Western Dominion began its own internal investigation.
That was how Lauren Chase’s name entered the file.
Commercial real-estate broker.
Paige’s closest friend.
Woman who had attended my Christmas party.
Woman who once stood in my kitchen praising Brandon for being “such a family man.”
She had introduced the developer.
Her expected commission was substantial.
Then divorce discovery produced hotel records.
San Diego.
Napa.
Phoenix.
Fourteen months.
Brandon and Lauren.
I read only enough messages to understand.
BRANDON: ONCE THE FARM THING IS DONE, WE CAN STOP HIDING.
LAUREN: AND RACHEL?
BRANDON: SHE’LL GET A DIVORCE AND MORE MONEY THAN SHE NEEDS.
Then:
LAUREN: WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS?
BRANDON: THEY’LL ADJUST.
I closed the laptop.
Nina looked at me.
“There are hundreds more.”
“I don’t need them.”
Those two words had already ended something in me.
They’ll adjust.
Lucas and Chloe were not people in Brandon’s fantasy future.
They were logistics.
The Miami trip had been beautifully arranged.
Brenda and Paige created the family-vacation cover.
Lauren arrived separately.
Western Dominion representatives would attend a “casual” afternoon meeting.
Brandon intended to present the farm transaction as essentially approved.
And my stolen debit card was supposed to finance the performance.
The suite.
Dinner.
Cabana.
Even another room associated with Lauren.
While I picked corn with our children.
Lauren eventually hired her own attorney.
She admitted the affair.
She also produced messages showing Brandon told her I had privately agreed to the land structure but was “performing resistance for my father.”
I stared at that phrase.
Performing resistance.
Even my refusal had been rewritten.
Lauren agreed to meet me once.
“I believed him.”
“You wanted to.”
She looked down.
“Yes.”
I appreciated that answer more than an excuse.
“You knew he was married.”
“Yes.”
“You knew this was my parents’ property.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know the signatures were fake?”
Her eyes came up.
“No.”
I believed that part.
Not because I liked her.
Because her actions after seeing the documents were those of someone suddenly worried she had crossed from unethical into criminal.
There was no slap.
No friendship.
No women-unite montage.
Lauren was responsible for sleeping with a married man and participating in a transaction she should have questioned.
Brandon was responsible for lying to her.
Both were true.
That week, I filed for divorce.
Brandon threatened to “take half the farm.”
Nina corrected him through counsel.
The farm was owned by my parents’ trust.
Not me.
Future inheritance had its own legal treatment.
Marriage did not magically convert someone else’s acreage into Brandon’s property.
May you like
He was furious.
I was surprised by how little his anger mattered once I stopped organizing my behavior around preventing it.
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