Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 381

Emmy couldn’t take it anymore. She ripped off her headphones and turned to Steve.

“Where did this video come from?”

Steve nodded toward the front row of the gallery.

Emmy followed his gaze and locked eyes with James. His eyes were dark and steady, almost too intense to look away from. Even in just a hoodie and jeans, he had a presence that dominated the room.

Her heart skipped a beat.

She recognized the background of the video right away—the waiting room on her mom’s hospital floor.

Suddenly, she remembered that day so clearly. Her mom was in critical condition, desperate for a blood transfusion. Emmy had called Cooper in tears, but he’d just snapped back that he was “busy talking business” with Claudia.

So this was what they’d been doing.

A wave of nausea hit her so hard she nearly threw up in her seat.

She barely got herself together before a staff member announced the next video.

That’s when she noticed her mom wasn’t okay.

Teresa was shaking.

This video was about Grandpa.

Emmy reached over and grabbed her mom’s freezing, trembling hand.

A burning tear fell onto Emmy’s skin.

Teresa looked stunned, like she couldn’t believe any of it. In one reckless moment, she’d destroyed her own life, ruined her daughter’s future—and worst of all, caused the death of the father who’d loved her most.

She pressed her hand to her chest, feeling like someone was squeezing the life out of her heart, crushing it from the inside out.

The pain was unbearable. It was hard to breathe, like even her organs hurt.

Her whole life suddenly felt like a cruel joke.

She should never have let her emotions take over. She should never have let a wolf into their home.

She hated herself—hated that naïve, stupid version of her from the past.

Why did she have to be so impulsive?

Even if she’d had to carry the shame alone her whole life, even if everyone turned on her, it would have been so much better than ending up like this.

She’d failed her father. She’d failed the Drennon family.

She was the reason for everything that had gone wrong.

Emmy felt her mom falling apart and it crushed her. She lowered her voice, barely holding it together. “Mom, let’s ask for a break, okay?”

“Your Honor! I have new evidence!”

“I want to prove that Teresa cheated first, before Cooper ever did!”

Emmy whipped her head around, eyes narrowing.

It was Tim—Cooper’s eldest brother’s son.

Tim strutted forward, handing a big brown envelope to the bailiff and announcing loudly, “If Teresa was the first to cheat, then Gregory shouldn’t lose everything! What’s his is his, and it needs to go back to him!”

He shot Emmy a smug, challenging look.

He was sure that if he could pin infidelity on Teresa, Emmy’s whole plan to leave Cooper penniless and get him locked up would fall apart.

If the divorce went down as “amicable,” the Lincoln family would end up with all the money anyway.

Right then, Emmy finally understood everything.

She realized why Claudia had insisted on that paternity test.

They’d been preparing for the worst all along.

Even if Cooper was totally exposed, they were ready to rip her mom apart just to keep something for themselves.

These people—so greedy and vicious it was almost unbelievable.