Chapter 9 - JAKE'S ROCK BOTTOM
While I was building,
Jake was breaking.
The trial lasted six weeks,
and every detail of his betrayal was laid bare for the world to see.
Amanda was called to testify against him.
In a desperate attempt to save her own career,
she turned on him with a ferocity that even I hadn't expected.
"He manipulated me,"
she told the jury,
her voice trembling with a fake emotion.
"He told me his wife was unstable and that he was the only one holding the company together."
"I was a victim of his ambition."
I watched her from the gallery,
seeing the same woman who had hissed threats at me over the phone.
Jake sat at the defense table,
looking at her with a look of pure,
shattering betrayal.
He had lost the woman he loved for the woman he had stolen for.
And now,
both were gone.
The jury found him guilty on all counts.
Embezzlement,
corporate espionage,
and fraud.
He was sentenced to fifteen years in a federal penitentiary.
As he was led out of the courtroom,
our eyes met for the final time.
He didn't look like the man on the stage with the diamond ring.
He looked like a ghost.
A man who had traded a lifetime of loyalty for a moment of ego.
Amanda tried to approach me after the verdict,
her face a mask of pleading.
"Emma,
I'm so sorry."
"I didn't know the extent of what he was doing."
"Maybe we can work together?"
I looked at her,
feeling a coldness that was now natural to me.
"You're a talented woman,
Amanda,"
I said.
"But you have no character."
"And in my company,"
"character is the only currency that matters."
"Good luck with your career."
I walked away,
leaving her standing on the courthouse steps,
surrounded by the cameras she used to love.
She was no longer the CEO.
She was a cautionary tale.
Jake was in a cell.
The house in the Hamptons had been sold to pay back the creditors.
The vintage car was gone.
The diamond ring had been seized as evidence.
He had nothing left.
I got into my car and drove to the airport.
The rain had stopped,
and the sun was finally breaking through the clouds.
I had a flight to catch.
May you like
A flight to a city that didn't know the name Whitmore.
A city that only knew me as Emma Thorne.
