Chapter 1
Five days after giving birth, I came home alone with our newborn after my husband ignored seventeen calls and found another woman wearing my robe in our bedroom. His mother looked at the baby in my arms and told me, “Don’t turn this into a scene,” so I didn’t. I made one quiet phone call and left, knowing that by tomorrow Derek would discover the mansion where he was entertaining his mistress had never belonged to him.
My name is Audrey Vance.
Five days earlier, I had given birth to our daughter, Maisie.
Derek promised he'd bring us home from the hospital.
He never came.
I called once.
Then five times.
By the seventeenth call, I stopped making excuses for him.
I strapped Maisie against my chest, ordered a car, and went home alone.
The moment I entered the foyer, I smelled perfume.
Not mine.
Two champagne glasses sat on the console table. A pair of red heels rested beside the staircase.
Then I heard laughter upstairs.
Derek's laughter.
Every step hurt as I climbed. My body was still recovering, but I kept one hand around Maisie and continued toward our bedroom.
The door was partly open.
Derek was sitting on our bed.
Beside him was a blonde woman wearing my silk robe.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Derek stood.
“Audrey?”
The woman stared at the newborn against my chest.
“You said she wasn't coming home until next week.”
That sentence hurt more than seeing her.
This wasn't spontaneous.
He'd planned it.
Before I could answer, Derek's mother, Lorraine, appeared behind me.
She looked into the bedroom.
She wasn't shocked.
She already knew.
“Please,” she sighed. “You just had a baby. Don't turn this into some ugly scene.”
I looked at her.
Then at my husband.
And strangely, I felt calm.
“No scene.”
Derek actually relaxed.
That was his mistake.
I walked downstairs, took one photograph of the champagne glasses and another of the unfamiliar car outside.
Then I called a number I hadn't used since my father died.
“Mr. Bennett? It's Audrey.”
My father's attorney recognized my voice immediately.
“I need you to activate the contingency clause.”
Silence.
“Are you certain?”
I looked up at the mansion Derek had spent six years calling his house.
“Completely.”
I packed one bag for Maisie and left.
Derek didn't follow me.
He probably thought I'd come crawling back once I calmed down.
The following afternoon, he returned from lunch with his girlfriend and found an attorney standing at the estate gates.
Lorraine was already outside screaming.
Derek snatched the documents from Mr. Bennett and read the first page.
Then the second.
His girlfriend leaned over his shoulder.
Her expression slowly changed.
She looked at the mansion.
Then at Derek.
“You said this house belonged to you.”
Derek didn't answer.
Because my father had purchased that estate before my marriage.
And the document in Derek's hands didn't merely prove I owned it.
It revealed something Derek had secretly done against the property three months earlier.
May you like
Something carrying my forged signature.
And Mr. Bennett had already sent a copy to someone else.
