Page 167 of Face Off
“About what?”
Her fingers tightened around her clutch. “Privately.”
I looked at the three men beside me.
Briggs immediately straightened.
Crystal saw that too. “Five minutes,” she said.
“You have four.”
Her mouth trembled, but she nodded. “That’s fair.”
I followed her through the smaller doors near the far end of the ballroom and onto a private patio overlooking the gardens. The stone walls softened the sound of the reception until music and laughter became something distant. White lights stretched above us, moving faintly in the evening breeze.
Crystal stopped near the railing.
I stayed closer to the door.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
“You’re losing time.”
“I know what Lance did to you after you left Charm.”
Everything inside me went still. “How much?”
“All of it.”
“You’re going to need to be specific.”
“The investigator. The photographs. The claims he sent to Milwaukee. The investigation into whether you were violent or abusive. The settlement.”
My jaw tightened. “When did you find out?”
“Before it ended.”
“And you stayed.”
“Yes.”
No defense.
No immediate explanation.
Just yes and it pissed me off more than excuses might have.
“You knew your husband used photographs of your sick daughter to try to destroy me, and you stayed inside his fucking house?”
“I was afraid.”
“So was Charm.”
Crystal flinched.
I didn’t soften it.
“I stopped accepting fear as an answer when it became permission to destroy me.”
