The Price of Betrayal novel Chapter 8

The truth hit Ashley and the other parents like a physical blow. Horror spread across their faces as they realized what they'd done.

I turned to the officer, my voice arctic. "I need to get my daughter's injuries treated. But I want everyone involved charged to the fullest extent of the law."

"We'll handle it," he assured me, already directing his team to take the perpetrators into custody.

Before I left, he advised me to collect all documentation - medical reports, purchase receipts for the damaged items, and photo evidence. They'd need everything for the charges.

After getting Emma's wound properly treated and the wire removed at Mount Sinai, I left her with our longtime nanny and headed to the precinct, files in hand.

The scene at the station was a far cry from the schoolyard drama. The once-proud parents sat deflated in the harsh fluorescent light.

Their entire worldview had shattered. They'd played up to Ashley thinking she was Mrs. Walker, CEO's wife, their ticket to the upper echelon.

How quickly they'd groveled, desperate to curry favor with what they thought was power.

Now their "queen bee" had been exposed as the very thing they despised - a mistress. And I, the woman they'd attacked and humiliated, turned out to be the real Mrs. Walker.

The irony made them sick. They couldn't even look at Ashley now.

She sat alone, a broken woman. The day's events had destroyed her carefully constructed reality.

The financial ruin facing her wasn't even the worst part.

She'd come to that school ready to destroy a homewrecker, proudly proclaiming her hatred for mistresses.

Only to discover she was the mistress all along.

And Tyler, her precious son whom she'd proclaimed the true heir, was now by her own definition an illegitimate child.

The truth was a bitter pill she couldn't swallow.

The officer reviewed my documentation carefully, tallying the damages. When he announced the total - $940 million - the room went dead silent.

Then the denials started.

"That's impossible! No one has that kind of money!"

"Officer, this has to be some kind of scam!"

"Where would a woman get assets like that? You need to investigate her!"

"She must be running some kind of con!"