Chapter 4: Reggie’s Shaking Hand

The city remained in the throes of the blackout, but a different kind of darkness was lifting for me. Armed with the damning pre-nup draft, I marched directly to Reggie Dubois’s office. He was hunched over his desk, futilely tapping at a dead calculator, the only light coming from a flickering emergency lantern.

He flinched when he saw me. His eyes were wide with apprehension.

“Nya,” he stammered. “Did you find the Jennings lease?”

I didn’t answer. I pulled the crumpled draft from my folder, smoothing it out on his desk. My finger pointed directly to the punitive clause and his initials.

“Reggie,” I said, my voice steady, devoid of emotion. “Tell me about this.”

He stared at the document as if it were a venomous snake. His face paled further.

“As I said, Nya,” he mumbled, trying to regain a semblance of composure. “It’s just an early draft. We went through many iterations for your pre-nuptial agreement. This was a… a preliminary exploration of certain financial protections for the Jenkins family interests. Arthur’s directives, you understand.”

He even managed a weak smile, a desperate attempt to gaslight me.

“An ‘exploration’ that bears your initials, Reggie,” I countered, my voice sharper than I intended. “And a clause that would have stripped me bare. I never saw this. I never agreed to it. The agreement I signed was fair.”

He shifted in his chair, his gaze darting around the small office, as if seeking an escape route. The silence stretched, broken only by the distant wail of a passing emergency siren.

“Well, Nya, sometimes these things are… minor editorial adjustments,” he explained, forcing a casual tone. “The nuances of legal drafting can be complex. Perhaps it was verbally approved, tacitly, in a discussion. You were so busy with your design work then, you might have overlooked the specifics.”

I leaned forward, my hands flat on his desk. “Don’t insult my intelligence, Reggie. This wasn’t a ‘minor adjustment.’ This was sabotage. And I have a very strong suspicion who was behind it.”

I watched him carefully. The mere mention of a puppeteer seemed to drain the color from his face.

“Simone,” I stated, making it a definitive accusation. “Simone put you up to this, didn’t she?”

Reggie’s eyes snapped to mine, filled with terror. He shook his head violently.

“No! No, Nya! Simone? Why would she… she’s your sister!” His voice was a panicked whisper.

“Because she always hated the idea of me marrying Elijah,” I shot back. “Because she never wanted me to have financial independence. She wanted to control me, just like she’s tried to control everything else.”

Reggie stammered, his fingers trembling as he reached for a pen that wasn’t there. He was visibly unraveling.

“I… I can’t,” he choked out. “You don’t understand, Nya. You can’t involve me in this.”

“I *am* involving you,” I said firmly. “You initialed this. You were complicit. Now, tell me the truth, Reggie. What did Simone threaten you with?”

He finally broke. His shoulders slumped, and he buried his face in his hands. He let out a whimper.

“She… she knows things,” he whispered, his voice muffled. “About my family’s situation. Our loans. And… and a minor indiscretion from my past. A small… misallocation of funds from an old client. Nothing criminal, just… career-damaging.”

My stomach clenched. This was worse than I thought. Simone hadn’t just coerced him; she had blackmailed him.

“She said if I didn’t… didn’t ‘facilitate’ the changes,” Reggie continued, his voice barely audible, “and ensure you received the modified version without a second glance, she’d expose everything. My wife would leave me. My career would be over. My children… they wouldn’t have anything.”

His head came up, his eyes pleading. “I had no choice, Nya. She’s merciless. She made it seem so simple, just a subtle swap. She promised it wouldn’t actually come to anything, that you’d just… walk away.”

The weight of his words settled over me. Simone’s ruthlessness, her casual destruction of lives, was breathtaking. She didn’t just want to keep me down; she wanted to obliterate my future, using my engagement as the weapon.

“And Elijah?” I asked, my voice tight. “Did she tell you to make sure he believed I backed out because of the clause?”

Reggie nodded miserably. “She drafted a letter, a harsh one, from you. Implying you couldn’t handle the terms. She ensured it reached him. She made sure he understood you were abandoning the future you had planned.”

The image of Elijah’s heartbroken face solidified in my mind. He hadn’t just been sad for me; he had felt betrayed, believing I had walked away from him and their shared dreams because of money.

Just then, I heard a soft click from the hallway. The door to Reggie’s office was slightly ajar.

Mrs. Ruby Mae Carter, the family’s administrative assistant, walked slowly past the doorway. She was a woman who rarely showed emotion, always composed and efficient. But as she passed, her gaze flickered into Reggie’s office, landing on Reggie’s trembling form and my resolute face. Her usual placid expression was replaced by a look of profound concern, almost distress. Her eyes lingered for a moment, a flicker of understanding passing between us, before she continued down the hallway.

Reggie didn’t seem to notice. He was still consumed by his confession.

“Please, Nya,” he begged. “You can’t tell Arthur. She’ll destroy me.”

I felt a surge of nausea. The sheer depth of Simone’s malice was chilling. She hadn’t just manipulated documents; she had manipulated emotions, twisting my entire past with Elijah into a lie.

His confession, however partial and fear-driven, was a validation. It was the proof I needed that I wasn’t crazy, that my memories weren’t failing me.

I picked up the pre-nup draft. “This isn’t over, Reggie. Not by a long shot.”

He watched me with the eyes of a condemned man.

I walked out, leaving him to his fear. Mrs. Carter was gone, but her silent observation had not gone unnoticed by me. It was a fleeting moment, but a significant one. The seeds of an alliance had been sown.

The air in the hallway felt suddenly colder. I knew Reggie had given me a crucial piece of the puzzle, but I still needed the complete picture. Simone’s reach was wider, her methods more insidious than I’d ever imagined.

I had to find proof that would stand up, not just Reggie’s terrified whispers. Something irrefutable, something that Arthur couldn’t ignore, something that Simone couldn’t gaslight her way out of.

This quest for truth was no longer just about me. It was about exposing the rot at the heart of the Jenkins family, and finding justice for everyone Simone had hurt.