I nodded, trying to keep my voice steady.
“I don’t want to destroy anyone, Maya. I just want this to stop.”
Her expression softened slightly.
“Sometimes the only way to make it stop is to hold them accountable.”
Over the next few days, she contacted the vendors and confirmed what I already suspected.
Ava had been using my name as a blank check.
Multiple upgrade orders were made under my supposed authorization.
She even sent emails pretending to be me.
My lawyer filed a report, not to press immediate charges, but to establish a legal record, a foundation in case Ava tried to pull anything else.
The funny part was I didn’t even have to expose her myself.
The truth has a way of unraveling when people start trying to control the narrative.
Mark, as it turned out, hadn’t gone far.
He was staying with his parents, trying to make sense of the chaos.
One evening, I got another call from Richard.
“You’ll want to know,” he said. “Ava came to our house this morning.”
“Oh?”
“She wanted Mark back. Said she’d been set up, but she slipped up. Mentioned that she never thought you’d actually look at the invoices. She basically confessed.”
I exhaled slowly.
“How did Mark take it?”
Richard gave a quiet chuckle.
“He said he couldn’t marry someone who humiliates children and commits forgery in the same week.”
I didn’t have a response to that, just silence.
A few days later, Carol called me again.
I almost didn’t answer, but curiosity got the better of me.
Her voice was quieter than usual.
“Daniel, Ava is talking about suing you for defamation.”
I laughed.
Actually laughed.
“Defamation for what? Exposing her own behavior?”
Carol’s tone trembled.
“You don’t understand. She’s spiraling. She says, ‘You ruined her life.’”
I paused.
“Carol, she ruined her own life. I just stopped cleaning up after her.”
There was a long silence before she whispered, “You sound just like your father.”
That stopped me for a moment.
“You say that like it’s an insult.”
She sighed, tired and brittle.
“He always thought everything could be solved by walking away. But families don’t heal like that, Daniel.”
I thought about my kids.