Chapter 1 - THE ACCOUNT NO ONE KNEW ABOUT
By eleven-thirty that night, the ballroom at The Peninsula was nearly empty.
The champagne tower had been dismantled.
The string quartet had packed their instruments.
The guests who had spent the last hour pretending not to gossip had finally disappeared into waiting cars.
But I was still there.
Not in the ballroom.
I was sitting across from my attorney, Diana Frost, in a private conference room downstairs.
She slid a thick folder across the table.
"You need to understand something, Sofia."
I opened it.
"I already know my husband cheated."
"This isn't about the affair."
She tapped the folder.
"It's about what Nathan did with your money."
I stared at her.
"My money?"
"Your money. His money. The family trust. And several accounts neither of you disclosed during the marriage."
I felt the same cold sensation I'd experienced when Iris threw wine on my dress.
Except this time, there was no audience.
No music.
No shouting.
Just facts.
Diana pulled out a bank statement.
"Three months ago, Nathan transferred $1.8 million from your joint investment account."
"Where?"
"That's the problem."
She pointed to the recipient.
A company called Bellhaven Holdings.
I frowned.
"I've never heard of it."
"Neither had our forensic accountant."
She turned another page.
"Bellhaven is registered in Delaware. Its listed manager is a man named Charles Walsh."
My stomach tightened.
"Iris's father?"
Diana nodded.
I sat back.
"So Nathan wasn't just sleeping with Iris."
"No."
"He was paying her family."
"Possibly."
I looked at the documents again.
There were dozens of transfers.
Small ones.
Large ones.
Some marked as consulting fees.
Others listed as legal expenses.
But one payment stood out.
$4,750,000.
The recipient wasn't Bellhaven.
It was an account in the Cayman Islands.
"What's that?"
Diana's expression changed.
"That transfer was made eleven days before Nathan filed the paperwork for a new life insurance policy."
I looked up.
"Whose policy?"
"Yours."
My mouth went dry.
"What?"
Diana lowered her voice.
"You're the insured person."
For several seconds, I couldn't process the sentence.
Nathan had taken millions from accounts I had access to.
He had been sending money to his mistress's family.
And now I was apparently worth nearly five million dollars dead.
I stood so quickly that my chair scraped the floor.
"No."
Diana remained calm.
"I know."
"He wouldn't."
"You just watched another woman throw wine on you in front of three hundred people while he stood there."
I looked away.
"That's different."
"Is it?"
I didn't answer.
Diana opened another folder.
"This is why I asked you to come downstairs."
Inside was a copy of Nathan's life insurance application.
The beneficiary wasn't me.
It wasn't Iris.
It wasn't even one of his companies.
It was a trust.
The Cole Family Legacy Trust.
I had never heard of it.
"Who controls this trust?"
Diana looked directly at me.
"Your mother-in-law."
My heart sank.
Evelyn Cole.
Nathan's mother.
The woman who had spent twelve years telling me I was lucky to be part of the Cole family.
The woman who had once smiled at me over Thanksgiving dinner and said, "A wife should never ask questions about money."
I suddenly understood why.
Diana closed the folder.
"There's something else."
She placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Nathan leaving a private medical clinic.
Beside him was Evelyn.
And behind them stood a doctor I recognized.
Dr. Martin Vale.
My doctor.
I stared at the photograph.
"When was this taken?"
"Yesterday."
My pulse began racing.
"Why was Nathan meeting my doctor?"
Diana hesitated.
"That's what we're trying to find out."
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed within seconds.
She looked at me.
"Sofia, don't go home."
"Why?"
"The police are there."
My heart stopped.
"Why?"
Diana's voice dropped.
"They're saying someone reported that you assaulted Iris Walsh tonight."
I stared at her.
"But I never touched her."
"I know."
"Then who called?"
Diana looked at the caller ID on her phone.
"Nathan."
May you like
And suddenly I realized the affair had never been the real attack.
The attack was just beginning.
