Chapter 1 - THE CHRISTMAS GIFT MY HUSBAND NEVER EXPECTED
The morning my husband left us for another woman, our two-year-old son was still wearing his dinosaur pajamas.
“Daddy, don't go.”
Harrison wrapped both arms around Julian's leg while my husband stood beside the front door, holding the suitcase he'd supposedly packed for an emergency business trip to Tokyo.
Julian crouched and kissed our son's forehead.
“I'll call you from Japan, buddy.”
I stood a few feet away, listening to him lie to our child on Christmas morning.
Julian wasn't flying to Tokyo. He was going to Aspen, where a woman named Isabel Hart was waiting for him in a luxury chalet.
I'd discovered the affair several weeks earlier when two of Isabel's messages appeared on his phone while he was in the shower.
I hadn't opened the messages. I didn't need to.
The first mentioned something Julian had whispered to her in an elevator. The second said she'd deleted their photographs.
After that, I stopped asking Julian questions and started paying attention.
When he announced his eight-day trip to Tokyo, I already knew the truth.
I handed him the leather gloves he'd forgotten.
“You'll need these.”
He smiled and kissed my forehead.
“Thank you, Elena.”
“Have a safe trip.”
I watched his Mercedes disappear down the driveway.
Then I closed the door, picked up Harrison, and carried him into the living room.
“Daddy Japan?” he asked.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
I hated repeating the lie, but I refused to destroy my son's Christmas because his father had decided to spend it with another woman.
Harrison returned to his presents while I took my coffee into the study.
My attorney, Rebecca Shaw, was already expecting my call.
I'd contacted her shortly after discovering the affair and explained that I intended to separate from Julian.
Rebecca had handled my mother's estate and knew exactly which assets I'd inherited before my marriage.
She also knew something Julian had apparently forgotten.
My mother, Nora Bennett, had left me a waterfront property in Rhode Island called Harbor House.
It had belonged to our family for three generations.
Julian had always dismissed it as an inconvenient old building that needed too many repairs.
But I loved it.
And unlike our Connecticut home, Harbor House was titled solely in my name.
“Are you ready?” Rebecca asked.
“Yes.”
“Then before you leave, there's something we need to discuss.”
Her voice was unusually serious.
“What happened?”
“I received a notice from a commercial lender yesterday. It concerns a financing arrangement involving Ward Hospitality.”
Julian was the chief executive of Ward Hospitality Group, a rapidly expanding hotel-development company.
I knew he'd been negotiating financing for a resort project in Colorado.
I didn't know my name was connected to it.
“What kind of arrangement?”
Rebecca took a breath.
“A personal guarantee.”
I frowned.
“I haven't guaranteed any of Julian's loans.”
“That's what I thought.”
My stomach tightened.
“What are you saying?”
“According to the documents sent to me, you've guaranteed six million, two hundred thousand dollars in financing.”
I stopped breathing.
Rebecca continued.
“And the lender's collateral schedule lists Harbor House.”
I stared at the photograph of my mother on the desk.
“That property has nothing to do with Julian's company.”
“I know.”
“Then how could he use it?”
Rebecca's voice became very quiet.
“Elena, someone submitted documents bearing your signature.”
My hands began to shake.
I hadn't signed anything.
Julian hadn't simply betrayed our marriage.
He had apparently tried to use the last home my mother left me to finance a business deal I knew nothing about.
May you like
Then Rebecca said something even worse.
“The person who coordinated the transaction on behalf of Ward Hospitality was Isabel Hart.”
