Page 210 of The Marriage Clause

I scrub a hand over my jaw.

"How much?"

"I don't know exact numbers. Enough to act like he suddenly had a seat at a table he used to stand outside of."

"That deal is a bad deal. The company is about to go belly up. You can see it in the financials. They're just harvesting investor funds trying to stay afloat. I give it a year… two tops."

"I know… but we discussed that right before you got engaged… over lunch one afternoon that Jeremy couldn’t make it. Remember? We cut out of the deal so I never brought it back up, and neither did you."

My mind starts to spin about what leverage he had and what the trust would have gotten in exchange for money.

Jeremy in the town car the night Aria kissed me outside the Hawkeyes arena and slid in beside me and offered marriage like a business solution neither of us had fully thought through.

Jeremy in the front seat while my life changed behind him.

Jeremy at the penthouse after, when we worked out exactly how fake it would have to look to pass.

Jeremy moving in and out of conference rooms while Everly built the PR strategy and Christian drafted the secret prenup.

Jeremy outside my office. In my calendar. In my inbox. In every room that mattered.

He didn't guess.

He knew.

He knew enough to hand the board the firing, the clause, the contract, the kiss, the timeline. He gave them every piece they needed to turn my marriage into fraud with a payout attached.

I handed Jeremy everything to hang me with because I kept it too close. Because I trusted him, and he sold it anyway.

Fuck.

I feel the blood leave my hands.

"He'll lose it all. He'll be broke in two years… at the latest," I say, as if I can't believe he's make such a stupid decision. "What did you tell your friend?"

A ghost of smirk pulls at her lips. "I told him to sell him the deal."

She’s cut throat and I’m glad she’s on my side.

Still, the whole thing doesn't sit right. Jeremy was loyal for years. He's kept more secrets than anyone I know.

"Why would Jeremy do this?"

"Apparently he had a lot to say about being overlooked." Her mouth flattens. "About how Conrad left one of his former assistants enough money to retire in the will, but not him. About how he's more competent than any of the Kauffman brothers and should have been the one running everything."

A sound comes out of me that isn't quite a laugh.

"Did he?"

"He did." She watches me closely. "And he was angry, Everett. Not the kind that blows over. The kind that's been sitting there for years, waiting for an opening and calling it justice."

I look away.

Jeremy… Not Sienna. Not some power play from an ex with old feelings and a grudge.

If this had been Sienna, it would have been ugly in a recognizable way. Personal and emotional. A bad decision driven by history. I should have known that Sienna was too loyal to do this. She could have screwed me over on deals in the past but she never has. She’s been an asset to this family and now she is again.

Jeremy was the one I didn’t see coming.