Chapter 6: What Brielle Had Been Saying
I sat back down at the kitchen table.
"What exactly has she been saying?" I asked.
Grace Alderton spoke in the measured, unhurried way of someone who had learned to deliver bad news without letting it become dramatic.
"Ms.
Foster has been telling people — mutual acquaintances, some connected to the Hale family's social circle — that the divorce settlement was structured to benefit you significantly.
That you walked away with the majority of the marital assets.
That Preston was, in her words, left with very little."
I was quiet for a moment.
"That's not accurate."
"I know.
I've seen the decree.
Eleanor shared it with me this morning." Grace paused.
"The settlement was equitable.
You took the family home in trust for the girls, which was appropriate given primary custody.
Preston retained his business interests and his investment portfolio, which represent the larger portion of the marital estate by a significant margin."
"So why is she saying otherwise?"
"My best assessment?" Grace said.
"Because she needed Preston to believe he had been wronged by you.
Because a man who believes his ex-wife took everything from him is easier to keep close.
Easier to keep grateful."
I pressed my fingers against the edge of the table.
"She's been doing this for months," Grace continued.
"Before the divorce was finalized.
She was already reshaping the story.
Several people in your former social circle believe you were financially aggressive in the settlement.
One of them told me directly that Brielle described you as having 'cleaned him out.'"
"Does Preston believe it?"
A short pause.
"He did.
I can't say whether he still does, given what happened yesterday."
I thought about the way Preston had laughed in that conference room.
*At least something good came out of this whole mess.* The ease of it.
The lightness.
A man who believed the mess was mostly my fault, mostly my doing, mostly something he was escaping.
Brielle had been building that version of events for months.
Possibly longer.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.
The same question I had asked Eleanor the night before.
"Because Eleanor asked me to," Grace said.
"And because what Ms.
Foster has been saying constitutes defamation.
You have grounds to pursue that, if you choose to."
"I'm not interested in pursuing anything right now."
"That's entirely your decision.
I only wanted you to know."
"Does Preston know you're calling me?"
"No."
I looked at the hallway.
Maisie's voice drifted from the back room, narrating something to Cora about the Y-shaped stick.
"One more question," I said.
"The man Brielle mentioned.
Callum.
Do you know who he is?"
Grace was quiet for just a beat.
"I've heard the name.
He's connected to a business associate of the Hale family.
Someone Preston has worked with for several years."
The kitchen felt very still.
"How long has he known Brielle?" I asked.
"Longer than Preston has," Grace said.
I let that land.
"Thank you," I said.
"For calling."
"Of course.
Eleanor has my number if you need to reach me."
I ended the call and sat without moving for a moment.
Brielle had not simply had a relationship before Preston.
She had been connected to someone in Preston's own professional world.
Someone Preston trusted.
Someone who had been close enough to the Hale family to know the calendar, the Edinburgh trip, the gaps.
And Brielle had told Preston I had taken everything from him.
She had spent months making sure that when the marriage ended, Preston would be angry at me and grateful to her.
She had positioned herself as the reward at the end of a bad marriage, the good thing that came out of the mess.
Preston's own words.
The baby, if it wasn't his, was the one thing she hadn't been able to control.
Diane appeared in the kitchen doorway.
She looked at my face.
"What now?" she said.
"Sit down," I said.
"I need to tell you something."
I told her everything.
Grace's call.
The defamation.
Callum.
The timeline.
Diane listened without interrupting, which was unusual for her.
When I finished, she was quiet for a long moment.
"She set him up," Diane said.
"I think so."
"She made him believe you were the villain so he'd never look too closely at her."
"Yes."
"And the baby was supposed to seal it.
An heir for the Hale family.
Preston grateful, committed, financially tied to her." Diane shook her head slowly.
"And then the dates."
"And then the dates," I said.
Diane looked at me.
"Are you going to tell Preston?"
I thought about his voice on the phone that morning.
The emptiness in it.
The man who had told me to take the girls and hadn't looked back — until the thing he had traded them for started showing its real shape.
"Not yet," I said.
"Why not?"
"Because he needs to find some of this out himself.
He needs to ask the questions and follow them.
If I hand it to him, it becomes my story about Brielle.
It needs to become his."
Diane considered that.
"And if he doesn't ask the right questions?"
"Then Grace Alderton has his mother's number," I said.
"And Eleanor Hale is apparently done protecting people who don't deserve it."
My phone buzzed.
Preston again.
This time I answered.
"I need to ask you something," he said.
"And I need you to be honest with me."
"I'm always honest with you, Preston.
That was never the problem."
A pause.
"Did you — in the settlement — did you feel like you were treated fairly?"
I looked at the window.
"Yes," I said.
"I did."
Silence on his end.
"Why?" I asked.
He didn't answer right away.
When he did, his voice was different again.
Not empty this time.
Something else.
May you like
Something that sounded like a man starting to do arithmetic he should have done a long time ago.
"I'm starting to wonder," he said slowly, "what else I was told that wasn't true."
