Chapter 2: The Mask Slips
I stood frozen in my bathroom, the phone pressed so hard against my ear that the plastic dug into my skin. The silence in my house seemed to amplify the crystal-clear audio pouring from the device.
Then, Nathan’s voice responded. The warm, loving tone he always used with me was entirely gone. In its place was a cold, arrogant drawl I had never heard before.
“Relax, Jessica,” Nathan chuckled. “She’s practically eating out of my hand. She’s a bit anxious regarding legal paperwork because of her dead sister’s neurotic instructions, but once the wedding is over and the rings are on, she’ll do whatever I request. Especially for the sake of those little brats. She is completely desperate for a man to play savior.”
Jessica. I recognized the name. She was his “junior partner” at the architecture firm. The girl in her late twenties with the perfect blowout who had always been a little too friendly, a little too touchy at his firm’s holiday parties.
A third voice chimed in. It was Linda, Nathan’s mother—the woman who had taken me dress shopping, who had held my hand and called me the daughter she never had.
“You need to make sure she signs the actual document, Nathan,” Linda’s voice was sharp, calculating. “Not just the ceremonial adoption fluff. The trust fund transfer.”
My heart stopped. It literally felt as if a fault line had cracked open right through my chest.
“I swapped the pages yesterday, Mom,” Nathan said dismissively. “The signature page she thinks is for the adoption decree is actually the power of attorney and the trustee transfer. Once she signs it on the altar, I get full discretionary control over the twins’ medical trust. Two million dollars, liquid. It’s enough to cover the firm’s bankruptcy, pay off Jessica’s ridiculous credit card debt, and leave us plenty to start over.”
“And the kids?” Jessica whined. “I swear to God, Nathan, if I have to spend one more weekend pretending to like that weird, quiet boy or those two sickly little dead weights…”
Nathan laughed—a cruel, hollow sound that made me want to violently vomit. “You won’t have to. Once the money is drained into our offshore accounts, I’m filing for divorce. I’ll take her house in the settlement since I convinced her to put my name on the deed last month. She will be left with absolutely nothing. I truly cannot wait to get rid of her. Touching her disgusts me.”
They all chuckled. Three predators sitting in a luxurious study, clinking glasses, acting as though my entire life, my children’s futures, and my dead sister’s legacy were just a casino game they had already won.
I terminated the call swiftly, hitting the red button before I made a sound.
I stared at myself in the mirror. My face was chalk-white. My hands were trembling so violently I could barely hold the phone. The urge to collapse onto the bathmat and scream until my vocal cords shredded was overwhelming. I wanted to call him, to scream, to cry, to demand to know how he could be such a monster.
But a strange, terrifying calm washed over me. It started in my toes and worked its way up to my brain, freezing my tears before they could even form.
Clara had trusted me to protect her girls. I had almost handed them over to a slaughterhouse.
I was not going to cry. I was absolutely not going to allow them to emerge victorious. If Nathan wanted a memorable wedding, I was going to give him an unforgettable one.
I unlocked my phone, bypassing Nathan’s number, and scrolled down to my contacts. My finger hovered over a name I hadn’t called in years: Marcus Vance. He was a ruthless, cutthroat corporate litigator who owed my late husband a massive favor.
I pressed call.
The game wasn’t over. It had just become a blood sport.
