Ryland's face flashed with displeasure, but when he saw the title of the document, shock overtook his features.
He snatched the brake inspection report and scanned it rapidly, his complexion draining to pallor inch by inch.
"Absurd!" He slammed the report down on the desk, "Elena, to divorce me, have you sunk so low as to fabricate evidence against Jolie? Have you gone mad!"
His voice brimmed with rage, yet I clearly saw his fingers tremble as he clutched the report.
He was afraid.
He refused to believe it.
On one side stood ironclad proof, on the other, his so-called debt to a dead friend's grace.
At that moment, a gentle knock sounded at the office door. "Ryland, these need your signature..."
Jolie entered in a professional skirt suit, arms full of files.
When she spotted the scattered papers on the desk and my icy stare, her words cut off abruptly.
She caught sight of those glaring words on the inspection report, her face turned ashen at once, her body swaying as if about to collapse. "Brake... fluid line... sabotage?"
She murmured to herself, tears tumbling like beads from a snapped string, "What... what is this? Ryland, I had no idea... How could I harm you... Theo... I always treated Theo like my own child..."
As expected, the scales in Ryland's heart tipped completely.
He lunged forward in one stride and shielded the trembling Jolie behind him. "Enough! Elena! Jolie's husband died saving me, that is a debt I owe their family! I will not allow you to slander her like this!"
His chest heaved violently, pain and helplessness nearly spilling from his eyes. "Do you know this hurts me too!"
Hurt?
I watched him cradle the killer of our son so protectively, and my heart felt like it was being sawed by a dull blade over and over.
So, his so-called debt outweighed the life of our own flesh and blood.
The "hurt" he spoke of was just an excuse for his own stupidity and cowardice.
Jolie hid in Ryland's arms and lifted her tear-streaked face, casting me a glance so subtle no one else would notice.
That look held none of her usual fragility or pretense, only raw triumph from the victor.
In that instant, a sweet metallic surge rose in my throat, nearly making me retch blood.
"Ryland," I heard my own voice, cold as if dragged from the depths of hell, "you will regret this."
He seemed startled by the dead emptiness in my eyes, but the woman's sobs in his arms steeled his resolve once more.
"Security!" He barked into the intercom with icy command, "Escort Mrs. Payne out."
Two burly security guards entered swiftly and seized my arms, one on each side.
"Ryland, let me go!" I thrashed against their hold, my nails digging deep into my palms.
Yet he refused to glance my way again and issued his final warning in a frozen tone. "Elena, I warn you, if you harass Jolie once more, I will personally commit you to an asylum."
The guards hauled me away and escorted me out of the Payne Group building.
Standing beneath the skyscraper, I finally grasped the truth completely.
Pinning hopes on Ryland led nowhere but death.
This path to vengeance for Theo, from this day forward, I would walk alone.
I pulled out my phone and dialed the police.
Yet I still underestimated Ryland's resolve to shield Jolie.
He had already called in favors at every precinct, and they refused to take the case.
As I stood in despair outside the station, a breaking financial news segment on a nearby street screen jolted my pupils wide.
In the footage, Jolie wore a simple white dress and subtle makeup while fielding questions from dozens of reporters.
Her eyes swelled red, her voice choked, as she played the innocent victim to perfection. "I do not know why Elena turned on me like this... Ryland's son was family to me too... I know she grieved Theo deeply, but she cannot let her mental fog turn into this mad hatred unleashed on me..."
In just a few sentences, she branded me the deranged widow gone feral from child loss.
Then another headline surged to the top. "Jolie's Son Bullied at School, Suspected Fallout from Mrs. Payne's Breakdown"
The report claimed Jolie's boy Max faced whispers and exclusion at his elite academy, classmates calling his mother the killer of their peer.
A candid video filled the screen, showing Jolie clutching Max and weeping to Ryland. "Ryland, I can take anything, but Max is innocent! Elena's illness... It has already hurt the child..."
In the video, Ryland enveloped Jolie and the boy, his face etched with guilt and heartache.
I watched and shook from head to toe.
