“She understands the situation,” Adrian said, his voice dropping into something softer and more intimate. “She is patient, and honestly she is worth waiting for because she is everything Avery is not, she is exciting, spontaneous, and actually fun in bed.”
The room behind him erupted into crude laughter while Avery ended the call and placed the phone on the table as if it might burn her skin.
She sat there for a long time without moving, without crying, and without speaking, while her mind processed every word with frightening clarity. Eventually she picked up her phone again and opened her messages, searching for her brother.
“Elliot, I need you here tonight,” she typed carefully. “Do not tell anyone, and bring your laptop.”
His reply came almost instantly, short and direct.
“I am on my way.”
Elliot arrived forty minutes later carrying coffee and a leather briefcase, his expression already serious before he even spoke. He was twenty nine, worked as a forensic accountant in Denver, and was the only person Avery trusted without hesitation.
“What happened,” he asked quietly after placing the coffee down.
She played the recording she had saved before Adrian could realize his mistake, and the audio lasted thirty seven minutes although only a few minutes truly mattered. Elliot listened without interrupting, then leaned back slowly after it ended.
“How much does he think you are worth,” he asked in a calm voice.
“The company buy in was eight hundred thousand dollars,” Avery answered steadily. “The house is in both names but I paid the four hundred thousand down payment, and my investments add roughly three hundred thousand more, so around one point five million total.”
“And he believes he gets half under state law, which is technically correct,” Elliot said while thinking through the implications.
“Except he does not know everything,” Avery replied as she reached for a folder hidden beneath a stack of unopened mail.
She opened it and revealed documents she had never shown Adrian, following advice her father once gave about never revealing every card in hand.
“Six months ago my firm offered a different partnership track,” she explained calmly. “I became a capital partner instead of salaried, which required a three million dollar contribution, so I secured a loan against my private trust fund.”
Elliot raised his eyebrows in surprise.