Chapter 4 - The Mistress's Mask Drops
The yard exploded into utter chaos. Guests who had come expecting a lavish baby shower celebration were now grabbing their designer purses and murmuring in horror, scurrying down the long driveway toward their parked Mercedes and BMWs to avoid being listed as witnesses in a police report.
"Wait! Don't leave!" Judith cried out, waving her arms in desperation as the local elite fled her backyard like rats from a sinking ship. "This is just a misunderstanding! It’s a clerical error!"
Nobody listened. Within two minutes, the long driveway was clogged with reversing luxury SUVs, leaving only Judith, Nolan, Brianna, Sheriff Vance, his deputy, Wyatt, and me.
Brianna stood frozen by the patio table, her hand resting on her stomach, her lip quivering with pure rage rather than sorrow.
"Nolan," Brianna said, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. "You told me this house was yours. You told me your mother gave it to you as an advance on your inheritance so our baby would have the best nursery in the county."
"Bri, babe, listen to me," Nolan pleaded, raising his hands, his linen shirt soaked in sweat. "It is ours! It’s just red tape! Tessa’s playing dirty legal games because she’s bitter that I’m moving on!"
"Bitter?" I laughed, a sharp, clean sound that cut Nolan off mid-sentence. "Nolan, you haven't held a steady job in four years. Your entire lifestyle—your truck, your golf membership, your imported suits, and that diamond bracelet Brianna is wearing—was paid for out of my consulting income. The only thing you've successfully produced in this marriage is credit card debt and an illegitimate pregnancy."
"Tessa, that’s enough!" Nolan barked, stepping toward me with his fists clenched. "You think you can humiliate me in front of my hometown?!"
Wyatt immediately stepped between us. His frame completely blocked Nolan from my view, his cold gaze pinning Nolan to the turf. "Take one more step toward her, Mercer, and we’ll test how tough you are without your mother backing you up."
Sheriff Vance cleared his throat loudly, resting his hand on his taser holster. "Nolan, step back. Right now."
Defeated, Nolan took two steps back, his chest heaving.
Brianna walked over to Nolan and shoved him hard against the shoulder. The sweet, innocent pregnant girl persona was completely gone. Her eyes burned with venom.
"You promised me this house!" she hissed at him. "You said we’d be living in a six-hundred-thousand-dollar estate! You let me pick out twenty thousand dollars of Italian tiles for the master bathroom! And now you’re telling me this dried-up corporate workaholic owns the roof over our heads?!"
"Watch your mouth, Brianna," I warned her, my voice drop-dead serious. "Those tiles you picked out? They haven't been installed yet. They’re sitting in crates in the garage. And guess whose credit card is on file with the European supplier? Mine. If you touch one piece of marble, I’ll add grand larceny to the civil complaint."
Brianna looked from Nolan to Judith, who was standing like a broken statue, unable to process that her social standing had collapsed in less than an hour.
"You pathetic mama’s boy," Brianna snarled at Nolan. "My lease on my downtown apartment ends on Friday! I gave away my furniture because you told me this house was fully furnished!"
"It is furnished!" Nolan stammered, pointing at the French doors leading into the living room. "The leather sofas, the eighty-five-inch OLED TV, the custom walnut dining table—"
"All purchased under Mercer Consulting LLC," I interrupted smoothly. "Which is a corporate entity owned solely by me, registered in Delaware, with Nolan possessing zero equity. Wyatt, did the moving trucks arrive at the gate?"
Wyatt checked his phone and smiled. "Right on schedule, Tessa. Two sixty-foot commercial vans just pulled up behind the excavators."
Judith gasped, clutching her heart. "You can't take the furniture! It’s inside my house!"
"It’s inside *my* leased structure," I corrected her. "And Sheriff Vance is going to stand right here and supervise while my bonded movers remove every fork, lamp, rug, and painting that belongs to me. Sheriff, will there be any problem with that?"
May you like
Vance sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "As long as she has receipts showing ownership, she has full authority to retrieve her personal property. Nolan, Judith... I suggest you get your personal effects out of the master suite before the movers go in. You have twenty minutes."
***
