36D Lingerie On Anniversary, I Found His Secret

Chapter 4

I stayed at my parents' house for three days.

For those three days, Carter kept calling and messaging me on w******p. At first, he apologized. Then he blamed me. In the end, he started making threats.

Carter: Sienna, can you stop being so dramatic?

Carter: I admit I was wrong, but you have problems too.

Carter: You're suspicious of everything now. Vivienne and I are innocent, but you keep twisting everything into something dirty.

I did not reply to a single message.

That third night, my mother knocked on my bedroom door. "Sienna, it's Mom. Can we talk?"

I sat up. "Come in."

She opened the door, sat down on the edge of the bed, and took my hand. "What exactly happened between you and Carter?"

I told her everything that had happened over the past few days.

My mother listened in silence. After a long while, she stood up and walked to the closet. When she came back, she was holding a folder. "Sienna, I've been keeping this for you."

I took the folder and opened it. Inside, I found a stack of documents.

The first page was an agreement. It listed Carter Hale as Party A, my father, Graham Shaw, as Party B, and my mother, Clara Whitmore, as the guarantor.

By the time I finished reading it, my hands were shaking.

The year Carter started his business, my parents had given him one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in total.

Ninety thousand dollars had been seed capital. Thirty thousand dollars had gone toward the store deposit. The remaining sixty thousand dollars had been used for inventory.

The agreement spelled everything out in black and white.

If the company's annual profit exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Carter would pay my family a yearly dividend of twenty percent.

If the company secured financing or went public, Carter would repay the principal in one lump sum, along with a thirty percent return.

If Carter and I ever divorced, thirty-five percent of the company's equity would be transferred to me.

Carter had signed the agreement himself. His fingerprint was on it too.

I looked up at my mother. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

She sighed. "Your father said that if you and Carter stayed happy, this agreement would never need to see the light of day."

Her eyes softened as she looked at me. "But if Carter ever changed, this would be your way out."

My tears spilled over. "Mom, did you and Dad see this coming?"

She shook her head. "We didn't see it coming. We prepared for it. Your father has been in business for decades. He's seen too many people turn ungrateful."

She patted my hand. "He said helping someone was one thing, but protecting yourself was another. Every dollar needed to leave a paper trail."

I flipped through the rest of the folder.

Inside were bank transfer records, with every transaction listed clearly. There was also a notebook filled with my handwriting from the first three years of Carter's business.

Customer contacts, sales records, product selection notes, and best-selling item analyses were all recorded inside. Every page was proof of the work I had done.

All of it was mine.

My mother pointed at the notebook. "Your father told me to keep this too. He said everything you did for Carter had to be recorded."

I hugged her and broke down. "I'm sorry I made you and Dad worry."

She patted my back. "Oh, sweetheart. Your father and I don't need anything from you. We just want you to be happy."

"If Carter had treated you well, these papers would have stayed buried forever." Her voice turned cold. "But if he dares to betray you, I won't let him walk away with a single cent."

That night, I could not sleep. I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling as scenes from the past ten years flooded my mind.

When Carter first started his business, I stayed up until dawn almost every night, answering customer messages for him.

I remembered the day he landed his first big order. He had been so excited that he lifted me off the floor and spun me around.

I remembered him promising that once the company took off, he would give me the best life he could.

But what happened after the company finally took off?

He turned me into a housekeeper. And Vivienne, the roommate my family had supported for four years, became the woman he doted on.

I picked up my phone and opened w******p. Carter had sent me more than a dozen messages again that night.

Carter: Sienna, if you don't come back home, I'm going to your parents' house to get you.

I did not reply. Instead, I opened Vivienne's i********: Story.

Her latest story had been posted an hour ago. In the photo, she and Carter were sitting in a restaurant, with red wine and steak on the table.

Her caption read, "Nights like this are better with company."

The geotag showed an upscale restaurant downtown.

In the comments, Carter had replied with a smiley face emoji.

I took a screenshot and saved it. Then I locked my phone and closed my eyes.

This time, I would not soften.

The next morning, I was woken by frantic knocking.

Carter's voice came from outside the front door. "Dad, Mom, I know Sienna is inside. Please let me see her."

My mother's voice was cold. "Carter, go home. Sienna doesn't want to see you."

"I need to talk to her," Carter said. "This is all a misunderstanding."

Then I heard my father's voice. "A misunderstanding?"

His voice was even colder than my mother's. "Sienna already knows about your dinner with Vivienne last night."

A brief silence fell outside the door.

Then my father continued, "How dare you show up here after that?"

Carter hesitated. "I was just comforting her. She was upset."

My father let out a cold laugh. "You comforted her at an upscale restaurant? Carter, do you think we're fools?"

Carter's voice tightened. "Dad, please let me explain."

I pushed open the bedroom door and walked out.

Carter's face lit up the moment he saw me. "Sienna..."

I looked at him calmly. "Carter, I want a divorce."

His face drained of color. "What did you say?"

I repeated myself. "I said I want a divorce."

Carter stepped forward, but my father blocked him.

"Sienna, please," Carter said quickly. "Let's talk this through."

I shook my head. "There's nothing to talk about."

"You had dinner with Vivienne last night. I saw the post. You remember everything about her, but you remember nothing about me. Carter, was there ever a place for me in your heart?"

He opened his mouth to argue, but I cut him off. "Don't bother. I've made up my mind."

I paused and looked straight at him. "And we need to settle the company too."

Carter frowned. "What do you mean?"

I looked at my father.

My father pulled the agreement from his pocket and handed it to Carter. "This is what you signed back then. Read it yourself."

Carter took the document. His face darkened with every line he read.

When he finished, he looked up with rage in his eyes. "You set me up?"

My father let out a cold laugh. "Set you up? That's your signature. That's your fingerprint. Carter, you know better than anyone how much profit the company makes every year. So tell me, under the agreement, how much does Sienna get? And when are you going to pay?"

Carter's face turned ashen. He stared at me. "Sienna, did you plan this from the beginning?"

I looked back at him. "If I had really planned this from the beginning, this agreement would have come out long ago. It was you, Carter. You disappointed me again and again until you pushed me here."

He gave a cold laugh. "Good. Very good. Sienna, do you really think you can threaten me with a piece of paper?"

His eyes hardened. "I'm telling you now. It won't be that easy."

He turned and walked toward the door. Before he left, he looked back at me one last time. His gaze was so unfamiliar that a chill ran down my spine.

Then the door shut behind him. My legs gave out, and I slumped against the wall.

My mother caught me at once. "Sienna, don't be afraid. Your father and I are here."

I nodded. But deep down, I knew the battle had only just begun.