Chapter 6
What the Lies Cost Him
By noon, three investors had demanded emergency meetings.
By four, the financial press had stopped calling the scandal a distraction.
They were calling it a crisis.
Freddie stood at the end of the conference table while Marcus projected the latest figures onto the screen.
"Revenue is stable," Marcus said. "The problem is confidence."
Freddie stared at the numbers.
"How bad?"
"Bad enough that two institutional investors want you removed from the expansion committee."
Freddie's jaw tightened.
"They're reacting to the headlines."
"They're reacting to your judgment."
The room went quiet.
Freddie looked at him.
Marcus did not look away.
"You authorized three major expenditures during the period you were seeing Mollie," he continued. "One of them involved a private aviation contract. Another involved the hotel group. The third was routed through a consulting company that now appears connected to Mollie's brother."
Freddie felt a chill move through him.
"What?"
Marcus changed the slide.
The consulting payments appeared on the screen.
Freddie stared.
"I didn't authorize that."
"You authorized the parent transaction."
"Not this."
"Someone used the structure you created."
Freddie stepped closer to the screen.
"How much?"
Marcus gave him the number.
Freddie went still.
It wasn't enough to threaten the company.
It was enough to damage his credibility.
"Why didn't accounting flag it?"
"They did."
Freddie looked at him.
"When?"
"Four months ago."
"Why wasn't I told?"
Marcus's expression hardened.
"You were told."
Freddie frowned.
"No."
"I brought the file to your office."
"When?"
"The morning you flew to Paris."
Freddie remembered.
He had been late.
Mollie had been waiting.
Lucy had called twice that morning.
He had ignored her because he was trying to get out of the office before anyone asked questions.
Marcus watched the realization cross his face.
"You signed the approval."
Freddie lowered his eyes.
"I don't remember."
"That's the problem."
Freddie looked at the figures again.
For months, he had been dividing his life into compartments.
Marriage here.
Business there.
Mollie somewhere in between.
He had convinced himself that he could control all of it.
Now the walls between those compartments were collapsing.
His phone buzzed.
A message from his mother.
Come home.
No explanation.
No greeting.
Just two words.
Freddie knew what they meant.
He arrived at the family estate forty minutes later.
Vivian Holloway was waiting in the library.
She stood beside the fireplace with her arms folded.
"You've embarrassed this family."
Freddie removed his coat.
"I know."
"You've embarrassed yourself."
"I know."
"And you've hurt Lucy."
He stopped.
His mother watched him carefully.
"That's the only part I care about."
Freddie looked away.
"I love her."
Vivian's expression hardened.
"Then you have a strange way of showing it."
He flinched.
"I made a terrible mistake."
"No."
Her voice sharpened.
"You made hundreds of decisions."
Freddie looked at her.
"You chose every lie."
She walked toward him.
"You lied to Lucy. You lied to the board. You lied to your employees. You lied to yourself."
"I know."
"Do you?"
She stopped inches away.
"Because from where I stand, you're still more upset about losing control of your company than losing the trust of your wife."
Freddie said nothing.
Vivian's eyes softened slightly.
"Lucy was good for you."
"I know."
"You were happier before the money became the only thing you trusted."
He swallowed.
"She won't come back."
His mother looked at him for a long moment.
"Maybe she shouldn't."
The words cut deep.
Freddie had expected anger.
He had not expected disappointment.
That night, Mollie called.
Freddie almost ignored it.
Then he answered.
"What?"
"We need to talk."
"We're done."
"Not yet."
His grip tightened around the phone.
"What does that mean?"
"You've been looking into the account."
"Yes."
"You shouldn't."
"Why?"
"Because you don't understand what it was for."
"Then explain it."
Silence.
"Mollie."
"I didn't create the account."
"Who did?"
"I can't tell you."
Freddie laughed bitterly.
"After everything you've done, you still think you can keep secrets from me?"
"You think this is about us."
"It isn't?"
"No."
Her voice lowered.
"Not anymore."
Freddie sat down.
"What did you do?"
"I protected you."
"You call this protection?"
"I kept certain information from becoming public."
"Why?"
"Because if it had, you wouldn't have had a company left to come back to."
Freddie's pulse quickened.
"What information?"
"You were making transfers without checking where the money went."
"I trusted my finance team."
"You trusted the wrong people."
"Who?"
Mollie hesitated.
Then she said, "Your brother."
Freddie froze.
"My brother is dead."
"I know."
His stomach tightened.
"What are you saying?"
"Before he died, he created a series of shell companies connected to Holloway International."
Freddie stood.
"That's impossible."
"He used your signature."
"I never signed anything."
"Not directly."
Freddie walked to the window.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because he threatened me."
"He's dead."
"He wasn't when he made the threats."
Freddie closed his eyes.
His brother, Daniel, had died eighteen months earlier.
An accident.
At least that was what everyone believed.
Mollie's voice trembled.
"There was a second account."
"What account?"
"One that existed before the affair."
Freddie turned.
"Where?"
"Offshore."
"How much?"
"I don't know."
"Who has access?"
"I don't know."
"Mollie."
"I swear."
He believed her.
That frightened him more than if she had lied.
"Why were you involved?"
Her breathing changed.
"Because Daniel asked me to keep the account hidden."
Freddie's blood ran cold.
"You knew my brother."
"Yes."
"How well?"
She didn't answer.
"Mollie."
"I was working for him before I ever worked for you."
Freddie stared at the phone.
Everything he thought he understood was changing.
"Why did you sleep with me?"
Silence.
Finally, she said, "That part was my choice."
He closed his eyes.
For once, there was no excuse to hide behind.
"Did you ever love me?"
Another silence.
"No."
The answer was quiet.
Clean.
Final.
Freddie ended the call.
He sat alone in his office for a long time.
Then he looked at his phone.
Lucy's name was still at the top of his contacts.
He opened their messages.
He scrolled backward.
Months of conversations.
Her reminders.
Her questions.
Her attempts to reach him.
Her simple messages.
Did you eat?
Are you coming home?
I miss you.
He had answered with lies.
Now he understood something that numbers and board meetings had never taught him.
The cost of a lie was not the moment it was discovered.
It was every ordinary moment it had quietly stolen.
The next afternoon, Freddie drove to Lucy's studio.
He did not call ahead.
Then he remembered her boundary and stopped the car two blocks away.
He stayed there for ten minutes.
Then twenty.
Finally, he drove away.
He did not ask anyone to follow her.
He did not send a message.
He went home.
For the first time, he understood that wanting to see her did not give him the right to see her.
Meanwhile, Lucy was reviewing a proposal when Evelyn entered the studio.
"Have you seen the news?"
"No."
"The Holloway board is considering removing Freddie from the expansion committee."
Lucy lowered her pen.
"Why?"
"Because investors are nervous."
Lucy nodded.
"That's unfortunate."
Evelyn studied her.
"That's all?"
"What do you want me to say?"
"He hurt you."
"I know."
"He deserves consequences."
Lucy looked back at the proposal.
"Maybe."
"You don't care?"
Lucy was quiet.
Then she said, "I care that he hurt me."
Evelyn sat across from her.
"But I don't want to spend the rest of my life measuring my happiness by how miserable he is."
The words surprised Lucy as much as they did Evelyn.
She looked down at the page.
"I don't want revenge."
"What do you want?"
Lucy thought about it.
"A life that doesn't revolve around him."
Evelyn smiled faintly.
"That's a good answer."
Lucy returned to her work.
Her phone buzzed.
Freddie.
She looked at his name.
Then ignored the call.
It rang again.
She still didn't answer.
The third call never came.
Instead, a message appeared.
I won't keep calling. I know you asked me to stop. I just wanted you to know that I'm not asking you to save me from the consequences of what I did.
Lucy read it twice.
Something inside her shifted.
Not forgiveness.
Not trust.
But recognition.
He was finally learning that consequences belonged to him.
She put the phone down.
An hour later, another message arrived.
This one was from an unknown number.
Your husband isn't the only one who betrayed you.
Lucy stared at the screen.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Freddie entering the Holloway family estate late at night.
The date was eleven months earlier.
The same month the affair had begun.
Lucy frowned.
Then she noticed the woman standing behind Freddie.
Vivian Holloway.
Freddie's mother.
Lucy zoomed in.
Vivian was handing Freddie a file.
On the front was a name Lucy recognized.
Her own.
Her pulse quickened.
A second photograph appeared.
This one showed the inside of the file.
There was a single handwritten sentence across the first page.
Do not let Lucy find out what happened before the wedding.
Lucy stopped breathing.
She read the sentence again.
Before the wedding.
The affair was not the only secret Freddie had been keeping.
There was something about her marriage that had existed before she ever said I do.
And suddenly, Lucy wasn't wondering whether Freddie had betrayed her.
She was wondering whether their entire marriage had begun with a lie.