CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2
I stayed perfectly still beneath the bed.
My phone was already in my hand because I had planned to record Ethan’s reaction to the prank.
Now my thumb moved slowly across the screen.
Record.
Vanessa kept talking.
“She thinks Ethan loves her,” she said. “It’s almost embarrassing.”
The other woman laughed.
“What if she leaves him?”
“She won’t. Ethan will convince everyone she’s unstable. A few arguments, a few witnesses, a few tears in the right places. Eventually she’ll walk away broken, and we’ll keep the house.”
My heart pounded so hard I thought the mattress above me might shake.
Then the suite door opened again.
Ethan walked in wearing his black tuxedo, his bow tie loose around his neck.
For one terrible second, I prayed he would tell Vanessa to stop.
Instead, he said, “Madison’s downstairs. She wants to know if we’re still moving next week.”
Vanessa sighed. “She’s impatient.”
“She’s pregnant,” Ethan said coldly. “And she’s tired of waiting.”
Pregnant.
The word hit me harder than any slap could have.
A moment later, a red gown swept into view near the window.
Madison.
The woman whose voice had been on the speaker.
She rested one hand on her stomach and looked toward Ethan.
“Did she sign anything else?”
Ethan chuckled.
“Not yet. But she will.”
Vanessa lifted a champagne glass.
“That bride paid for the house,” she said. “My son will keep it.”
From beneath the bed, tears burned my eyes.
But I did not stop recording.
May you like
I whispered so quietly only I could hear it.
“Keep talking.”
