Chapter 6 - BROOKE DIDN’T GET TO BECOME INNOCENT
Brooke agreed to meet at a quiet restaurant in Wayzata.
She expected shouting.
Stella brought a folder.
Brooke was visibly pregnant now. She kept both hands around her water glass as though anchoring herself.
“You knew Gavin was married,” Stella said.
“Yes.”
“You slept with him anyway.”
“Yes.”
“You sat beside him while Meredith humiliated Hazel and Paige.”
Brooke’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
“You wore my bracelet.”
Brooke looked genuinely embarrassed for the first time.
“He told me it belonged to his mother.”
Stella nearly laughed.
“Of course he did.”
Brooke swallowed.
“I know you hate me.”
“I don’t know you well enough to hate you.”
That seemed to hurt more.
“I’m not giving up my child because Gavin lied.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
Brooke blinked.
Stella continued.
“The baby is not the problem.”
“Then why are we here?”
“Because if you knowingly help Gavin and Meredith move money belonging to my daughters, you become part of the problem.”
Brooke’s face changed.
“What money?”
Stella slid over one page.
Seven hundred sixteen thousand dollars.
Brooke read.
Then looked up.
“I didn’t know.”
“I believe you.”
Relief touched Brooke’s face too soon.
“You knew everything else.”
The relief disappeared.
No instant alliance followed.
No friendship.
No neat scene in which two betrayed women suddenly absolved each other because the same man lied to them differently.
Stella left.
Three days later, an audio file appeared in her inbox.
No message.
Just a recording.
Meredith’s voice.
Clear.
“If the baby is a boy, Gavin won’t need those girls for anything except appearances.”
Then Gavin:
“Keep your voice down.”
Meredith laughed.
“Why? Brooke understands.”
Brooke’s voice appeared faintly.
“I didn’t say I agreed with that.”
“No,” Meredith replied. “But you’re still here.”
The recording ended.
Stella stared at her screen.
Brooke had not been innocent.
But she had finally decided that staying silent was costing too much.
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That voice memo would become useful in family court.
It would also become the first crack in something Meredith had protected far longer than Gavin’s affair.
