Chapter 2
Dominic married me before he knew exactly who I was.
That was the irony.
He knew the name Brooks, of course.
Everyone in his circles knew enough.
Old hospitals.
Private foundations.
Quiet money.
Buildings with donor plaques but no family interviews.
But my grandfather had raised me carefully outside the spectacle.
No glossy magazine profiles.
No staged heiress life.
No public access to the full structure of our family holdings.
To Dominic, I looked useful, but not dangerous.
That was why he pursued me.
We met at a charity gala in Chicago, where he was charming enough to make ambition look like devotion.
He complimented my work with pediatric care grants.
He asked thoughtful questions.
He listened.
At least, I thought he did.
Later, I realized Dominic listened the way investors listen.
To identify leverage.
My grandfather never liked him.
He did not forbid the marriage.
Charles Brooks did not control people he loved.
He simply warned.
“Audrey,” he said before my wedding, “a man who studies your access more carefully than your heart will eventually mistake you for a door.”
I was twenty-seven and in love.
I thought he was being dramatic.
Dominic was attentive then.
He remembered my coffee order.
He came to every fundraiser.
He told me he admired how little I cared about public status.
After marriage, admiration became irritation.
He disliked that I kept separate legal counsel.
Disliked that I did not add him to certain accounts.
Disliked that my grandfather still called weekly and asked questions Dominic could not charm his way through.
Then Natalie arrived.
She was first introduced as a consultant on one of Dominic’s expansion projects.
Then a friend.
Then a “strategic partner.”
By the time I became pregnant, she was everywhere Dominic claimed I was too tired to go.
At dinners.
At meetings.
At family events.
Smiling beside my husband while people carefully avoided my eyes.
When I confronted him, Dominic laughed.
“You’re pregnant. You’re emotional.”
That became his answer for everything.
Pain.
Suspicion.
Exhaustion.
Fear.
Emotional.
The twins arrived early after complications no one expected.
For forty-eight hours, I forgot Dominic’s cruelty.
All I could think about was keeping them alive.
Dominic did not forget.
He waited until I was weakest.
May you like
Then he walked into the NICU with divorce papers.
Read the full story 👉 Dominic chose Audrey’s most vulnerable moment because he believed pregnancy, surgery, and fear had left her with no defense.
