Chapter 19

A heavy storm rolled in that night after the engagement party. In the study of the Lesterfields' villa, Roxanne finally told her family about her and Brandon's secret marriage. She started with how she had secretly fallen in with him and then kept it hidden when they had married. Then, she told them about the bet she had made with Nicole, how she had lost it, and all the pain and humiliation she had endured along the way. Roxanne didn't withhold a single thing from her family. The room was shrouded in a heavy silence once she had finished. She initially thought her family would reproach her for getting involved with the Slewmans' son. But to her surprise, the only thing her parents were upset about was, "Our daughter is good, beautiful, capable. Yet, Brandon Slewman drove her to this point." Bridget's heart ached, and her eyes filled with tears as she looked at Roxanne's scarred left arm. "You told me your burn scar was from a hot oil accident in the kitchen, when in actual fact,