of the Howard men. No more. “I know what you did.”
“Of course you know.” He slid a grim glance between the duke and Merritt. Apparently, they knew, too, having put him through an interrogation after freeing him from the New Prison. Most likely they were simply waiting for her and Pearce to help them decide what to do with him. “You heard the charges that Charles Varnham leveled against me when Bow Street arrested me. I told you about them when the blackmail—”
“My marriage.”
The accusation hit him so forcefully that his mouth fell open, and his eyes flared wide. Shock radiated from him.
The duke and Merritt turned to leave the room. But she held up a hand and stopped them.
“No, stay,” she ordered softly. “Please.”
The men awkwardly exchanged glances but did as she asked and remained.
“I’ve had enough of secrets. I’m living my life out in the open now for all to witness. Starting immediately.” She took a step forward to close the distance between her and her brother. For the first time, he wasn’t at all intimidating. Up close like this, cornered by his own devices, he was simply weak and self-serving. Pathetic. “I know what you did. I know how you schemed to steal my money, the lengths you went to, all the lies and humiliations.” Her voice choked, and she forced out in a rasping whisper, “Damn you…damn you to hell for what you put me through!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he countered, far too calmly. “Aaron Northam fooled me as much as he did you.”
“Stop the lies!” Consumed by anger, she didn’t step away or back down. “You hired Aaron to pretend to marry me so you could have both my money and your revenge on me for inheriting Papa’s fortune. You couldn’t stand that he passed you over for his daughter.”
“That’s absurd! For you to make those accusations, when I’ve done nothing but help you—” Self-righteous indignation hardened his face. “You know everything I did to pursue Northam. I hired accountants, lawyers, investigators—how I worked to keep your elopement secret so you wouldn’t be ruined socially as well as financially. For God’s sake, Amelia! I took care of you. I did everything I could to make you happy.”
“You mean like the letters I wrote to Pearce, the ones you made certain never reached him? Did they even leave the house, or did you simply burn them in the fireplace the moment my back was turned?” Her words emerged so softly that she barely heard them herself. But if she spoke any louder, she would have screamed. “Is that what you mean by taking care of me?”
“Pearce was nothing then! You deserved better, Amelia. I will not apologize for keeping you from throwing your life away on an army officer.”
Around her, she felt all three men stiffen at that insult. Marcus Braddock slowly folded his arms over his chest in such an imperial posture that the air inside the room turned cold. But Frederick was too wrapped up in saving himself to notice his blunder.
“You lied to me.” She blinked, her eyes burning with furious tears at all he’d cost her. “Just as you’re lying now.”
“I am not—”
“I saw the contract you made with Aaron! I know you paid him—and Arthur Varnham told me the rest. That’s what he used to blackmail you.”
He glared at her, his jaw working in anger, no longer attempting to defend himself. Thank God. At least he wasn’t that much of a fool.
“You must have had such a great laugh at my expense when you planned out how Aaron and I would meet that day in the park, when you gave him information about all my favorites so he would know exactly how to win my affection.” Fresh pain simmered inside her. But she needed to walk through the fire until it seared her heart to him and never let him inside there again. “How did you keep a straight face that day he came to the house to call on me for the first time, watching me beside myself with nervousness as I introduced you, when you’d known each other all along? Or the day you pretended to take him to our banker to introduce them?” The words strangled in her tightening throat, yet she forced them out, needing to utter them. “To go that far for money and revenge… Do you really hate me that much?”
“Yes!” he bit out. “Yes, I do.”
Something deep inside her shattered.