Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO PLANTED THE EVIDENCE
I didn't go home.
Diana drove me to her office, where I spent the night on a leather sofa beneath a painting worth more than my first apartment.
At 2:13 a.m., my phone buzzed.
A message from Nathan.
WE NEED TO TALK.
I stared at it.
Then another appeared.
YOU DON'T WANT TO TURN THIS INTO A WAR.
I almost laughed.
He had already declared war.
He simply hadn't realized I had brought lawyers.
At 6:40 a.m., Diana walked into the conference room carrying coffee and a tablet.
"The police found something."
"What?"
"A wineglass."
I frowned.
"At the hotel?"
"No."
"In your house."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
She turned the tablet toward me.
The photograph showed my bedroom.
A shattered glass lay beside the dresser.
There were red stains on the carpet.
"That isn't wine."
"No."
Diana zoomed in.
"Blood."
I felt sick.
"Whose?"
"Yours."
I stared at the screen.
"I wasn't there."
"I know."
"Then how?"
Diana pulled up security footage from my home.
There was a figure entering the house at 1:17 a.m.
The person wore a dark hood.
But the face wasn't visible.
They walked directly toward my bedroom.
Then they stopped.
And turned toward the camera.
Diana froze the image.
I recognized the watch.
Nathan's platinum cufflinks weren't visible.
But the watch was.
I had given it to him on our tenth anniversary.
"He was in my house."
Diana nodded.
"Apparently."
"Why?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she showed me another image.
The figure had placed something beneath my mattress.
Police had later found a small bag containing prescription medication.
My name was printed on the label.
I shook my head.
"I've never taken that."
"We had the prescription traced."
"Who prescribed it?"
Dr. Martin Vale.
My doctor.
The same doctor photographed with Nathan.
My hands went cold.
"Is this enough to arrest him?"
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because the prescription is legitimate."
"So someone used my name."
"Exactly."
Diana leaned forward.
"This is becoming bigger than your divorce."
"What do you mean?"
"Someone is building a case against you."
I stared at her.
"Why?"
"To make you look unstable."
The words hit me.
Nathan had once joked that I was "too emotional."
Evelyn had told friends I was under enormous stress.
Iris had screamed that I was jealous.
Now there was medication in my bedroom.
A police complaint.
A supposed assault.
A story was being constructed.
And I was the villain.
I suddenly remembered something.
"The charity gala."
Diana looked up.
"What?"
"Nathan knew I would be there."
"Of course."
"He knew Iris would be there."
"Yes."
"He knew she would drink."
Diana's eyes narrowed.
"And you think the scene was planned."
"I think the wine was the performance."
She sat back.
"Then what was the purpose?"
I looked at the photograph of the life insurance policy.
"To make me look dangerous."
Diana slowly nodded.
"Keep going."
"If something happens to me, everyone already has a story."
My voice shook.
"The unstable wife. The jealous wife. The wife who threatened the mistress."
Diana said nothing.
I looked at the photograph of Nathan leaving the clinic.
"Maybe the insurance policy isn't the endgame."
"What is?"
"I don't know."
Then my phone rang.
It was my mother.
I almost didn't answer.
"Mom?"
Her voice was trembling.
"Sofia, you need to listen carefully."
"What happened?"
"Nathan came here this morning."
My stomach dropped.
"Why?"
"He said you were dangerous."
I closed my eyes.
"What else?"
My mother began crying.
"He told me that if I don't cooperate with him, he'll make sure I lose my house."
"Mom, what does he want?"
There was silence.
Then she whispered:
"He wants me to tell the police that you threatened me."
I felt the room disappear.
Nathan wasn't simply trying to divorce me.
He was trying to manufacture witnesses.
And he was starting with my own mother.
Then Mom said something even worse.
"Sofia..."
"What?"
"I found something in your father's old papers."
My breath caught.
"What?"
"Your father's name is on a trust document."
I frowned.
"My father died fifteen years ago."
"I know."
"Then why is he connected to Nathan?"
Mom's voice broke.
"Because the trust was created before you were born."
She paused.
"And sweetheart..."
May you like
"The beneficiary isn't Nathan."
"It's you."
