Chapter 10 - THE LETTER MY FATHER WROTE TO MY HUSBAND
Selena waited three days before giving Corbin the letter.
Not to punish him.
Because she needed to know she was not using her father’s final words as a weapon.
They met in Malcolm’s office.
Corbin looked exhausted.
No stylist.
No perfect suit.
No Vivian.
Selena placed the envelope between them.
“My father wrote this.”
Corbin stared.
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“Did you read it?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
“You could have.”
“It wasn’t addressed to me.”
For perhaps the first time in months, shame crossed his face.
He opened it.
Thomas Renner’s letter was short.
Corbin,
You are talented.
That has always been your greatest gift and your greatest excuse.
Corbin stopped.
Then continued.
You have spent years believing every room you enter owes you recognition because you know what you could become.
But talent without character turns opportunity into entitlement.
Corbin’s hands began trembling.
Thomas wrote about The Glass Monarch.
He praised Corbin’s creative instinct.
Then:
If the film succeeds, hundreds of people will deserve that success with you.
If it fails, you will be tempted to blame everyone around you.
Do neither.
Learn proportion.
Then the final paragraph:
You believe Selena’s quietness means she needs you more than you need her.
You are wrong.
She is quiet because she has never needed to announce where she stands.
If you mistake that for weakness long enough, one day you will look beside you and discover she has stopped standing there.
Corbin lowered the letter.
His eyes were wet.
“He hated me.”
“No.”
Selena’s answer came instantly.
“My father rarely wrote letters to people he hated.”
Corbin laughed bitterly.
“I served you divorce papers at his funeral.”
“Yes.”
“Why aren’t you screaming at me?”
“Because screaming would not change who you decided to be.”
He looked down.
Then said:
“I loved you.”
Selena’s chest hurt.
“I know.”
“I love you.”
“That may also be true.”
He looked up hopefully.
She stopped him.
“Love is not the issue.”
Silence.
“Trust is.”
He nodded slowly.
Then confessed something.
Vivian had left.
Not because the money vanished entirely.
Because she discovered Corbin planned to blame her companies for the unsupported spending.
He had drafted a legal strategy identifying Vivian as the person who “misrepresented services.”
She found it.
Packed.
Left.
“So you betrayed her too.”
Corbin flinched.
“Yes.”
The pattern was finally visible even to him.
When pressure came, Corbin preserved himself first.
Then blamed the person standing closest.
Selena.
Vivian.
Miles.
Anyone.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“With us?”
He nodded.
“We divorce.”
His face broke.
“Selena—”
“No.”
Not cruel.
Clear.
“I hope you become someone better.”
He cried silently.
“But I am not going to stay married while you practice.”
That sentence ended the marriage more decisively than any filing.
Then Corbin handed her something.
A flash drive.
“What is this?”
“Everything Dennis Harrow told me to hide.”
Selena stared.
“What?”
Emails.
Contracts.
Silver Arc negotiations.
Vendor communications.
Corbin had kept copies.
“Why give it to me?”
“Because your father was right.”
He laughed through tears.
“I’ve spent my entire life asking who would catch me.”
“And?”
“No one should.”
He stood.
Before leaving, he said:
“There’s one thing on that drive you need to see first.”
A folder.
REN NER INTERNAL.
Inside were emails Corbin had received from someone within Vellum Crown.
Someone who knew Selena’s ownership long before Corbin did.
Someone who deliberately kept him from learning.
At first, Selena assumed her father had instructed them.
Then she saw the sender.
Blythe Carter.
May you like
Her closest executive ally.
Blythe had been secretly communicating with Corbin for two years.
