Austin pointed toward the hallway and told the guests how he stood at their bedroom door while she lied to him over the phone. Brianna’s father slowly turned toward his daughter and asked her what she had to say for herself.
“I thought about how to handle this,” Austin said as he approached the box. “I decided that since the lie was so clean, the truth deserved witnesses.”
Brianna began to tremble while her sister Vanessa asked her to say it wasn’t true. Austin opened the box and revealed the gold watch with the blue dial sitting on the dark velvet.
“That watch belongs to Julian Vance,” Austin said, and the name landed in the room like a heavy blow. Brianna took a step back toward the door and claimed it was not his, but her father’s face had already hardened.
“He was here in this house last night,” Austin said firmly. “You told me you were in bed while I was standing right there listening to you.”
Brianna started to cry messy tears while Austin asked her how long the affair had been going on. She lowered her head and whispered that it had been five months.