Chapter 3 - BRENDA’S NEW BEDROOM
Brenda woke that morning believing she had won.
By 9:00 a.m., she had moved half her clothes into my bedroom.
By 9:30, she was standing in front of my closet choosing which dresses she intended to throw away.
Margaret watched approvingly.
“Anything cheap can go.”
Brenda smiled.
“Most of it looks expensive.”
Margaret scoffed.
“Andrew paid for those.”
Neither woman knew I had purchased nearly every dress with my own money.
Brenda pulled out a cream silk gown.
“I’ll keep this one.”
Margaret smiled.
“It suits you better anyway.”
Then Andrew stormed into the room.
“Get out.”
Brenda blinked.
“What?”
“I said get out.”
Margaret frowned.
“Andrew, what is wrong with you?”
He slammed the bedroom door.
“Who is Mariana Escalante?”
Silence.
Brenda stared at him.
“What kind of question is that?”
“My wife.”
Margaret’s expression hardened.
“Your wife is Mariana Whitmore.”
“No.”
Andrew’s voice cracked.
“Apparently she isn’t.”
He held up his phone.
“Her legal surname was never changed.”
Margaret laughed dismissively.
“Some women keep their maiden names.”
Andrew stepped closer.
“Do you know who Alejandro Escalante is?”
Margaret’s smile disappeared.
Brenda knew.
Everyone with access to business news knew.
Andrew watched recognition enter her eyes.
“Yes.”
He pointed toward the hallway.
“That’s her father.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
“It’s true.”
“No.”
“She grew up inside the Escalante family.”
Margaret sat down slowly.
For years, she had mocked my upbringing.
Called me common.
Unsophisticated.
Unworthy.
Now Andrew told her that my father controlled a fortune many times larger than everything the Whitmores claimed to own.
Brenda recovered first.
“So what?”
Andrew turned toward her.
“So what?”
“She left.”
Brenda crossed her arms.
“She can’t just take your company.”
Andrew stared at her.
“You really don’t understand.”
He explained the financing structure.
The guarantees.
The collateral.
The suspended credit lines.
With every sentence, Brenda’s confidence faded.
Finally, she said, “Then apologize.”
Andrew looked insulted.
“To her?”
“If it saves the company.”
Margaret stood immediately.
“Absolutely not.”
“Mother.”
“That woman humiliated this family.”
Andrew almost laughed.
“She humiliated us?”
He looked at Margaret with disbelief.
“We accused her of theft and I hit her in front of twenty people.”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
“She provoked you.”
Andrew ran a hand through his hair.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message from his attorney.
EMERGENCY BOARD MEETING.
10:30 A.M.
MANDATORY ATTENDANCE.
Andrew opened the attachment.
The meeting had not been called by him.
It had been called by the majority secured creditor.
Escalante Strategic Holdings.
And listed at the bottom of the notice was the person who would chair the meeting.
Mariana Escalante.
Brenda whispered, “What does that mean?”
Andrew did not answer.
Because for the first time, he understood.
May you like
I had not walked away from his world.
I was walking back into the part of it that had always belonged to me.
