Chapter 1 - The Document Richard Was Never Supposed to See
Margaret was already pulling the oxygen cannula from Claire’s face when Claire understood Ethan was not going to stop her.
Claire reached for the tubing instinctively.
Pain tightened across her abdomen as she shifted too quickly.
Margaret drove her hip and leg hard into Claire’s side.
Claire lost her balance and slid heavily from the edge of the hospital bed onto the floor.
“Ethan… help me!”
He stood less than six feet away in his dark-blue suit.
He saw everything.
He did nothing.
Margaret bent down, grabbed the front of Claire’s hospital gown near her collarbone and pulled her partly upright against the bed.
“You’re of no use to this family anymore!”
Ethan turned his face away.
That movement hurt more than the fall.
Claire stared at him from the floor.
“Are you even my husband anymore?”
Still nothing.
Margaret snatched Claire’s beige personal bag from beside the bed and hurled it through the open doorway.
The bag flew into the hallway.
A man approaching the VIP room took the impact across his chest.
Richard caught part of the bag as the zipper burst open.
A folded blouse, one slipper, a toiletry pouch and several personal items scattered around his shoes.
He looked down.
Then into the room.
Claire was on the floor.
Margaret stood over her.
Ethan stood motionless.
Richard stepped inside.
“What are you doing? And you—just standing there like a statue instead of helping your wife up?”
Margaret’s confidence finally flickered.
Ethan went rigid.
Richard’s eyes moved across the room and stopped on Margaret’s leather briefcase, partly open on the side table.
He crossed to it.
Margaret took half a step toward him.
Too late.
Richard opened the briefcase and removed a formal document.
Ethan’s name appeared prominently near the top.
CEO APPOINTMENT.
Margaret’s signature sat near the bottom.
Richard looked at Ethan.
Ethan’s face drained of color.
“You sold your wife for the CEO position.”
Nobody answered.
Claire stared at her husband.
Richard turned the paper over once.
Then he stopped.
At the authorization section, one required approval was missing.
His expression changed.
Margaret saw exactly where he was looking.
For the first time that afternoon, she froze.
May you like
Richard slowly raised his eyes toward her.
And Claire realized that whatever Ethan had betrayed her for might not even belong to Margaret to give.
