“Have you completely lost your mind?!” rage crackled in her voice, something wild tearing through her chest.
Frank drove calmly, not looking at her even once. That only pushed her closer to the edge.
“How could you lock me in a psych ward? Do you even understand what you did?!”
Her anger boiled over, her hands clenching into fists.
“You didn’t even let me call my daughter! She must’ve been worried!”
Frank gave a faint, crooked smile but said nothing.
Something inside her finally snapped. She grabbed his sleeve, trying to force him to look at her.
“Answer me, damn it!”
And then he suddenly grabbed her wrist. Strong fingers clamped around her arm like steel. Pain shot up her arm. She flinched but didn’t look away. There was icy cruelty in his eyes.
“If you don’t want to end up back there, lower your voice.”
Nina froze. Everything inside her turned to ice.
It was a threat.
A real one.
He could do it. He could lock her up again. Make her disappear if he wanted.
And no one would come to save her.
Real fear seeped into her bones, tearing her apart from the inside. All this time she’d been living beside a dangerous man, trusting him with her life, never realizing who he truly was.
Now Frank no longer needed to pretend and that terrified her more than anything.
Her fingers loosened on their own. She looked away.
She didn’t say another word until they reached home.
CHAPTER 13
When Nina stepped into the house, everything felt wrong. As if this wasn’t her home anymore, not the place she’d lived in for so many years. She felt like a stranger here.
Frank walked straight into his office without a word, not even glancing back.
Nina froze in the middle of the living room and closed her eyes. He’d crossed the line. There was no turning back now. Tonight, she would throw Frank Osborne out of this house. Let him go to his mistress, to his son—to the life he’d been building behind her back.
She went up to the bedroom and immediately saw her phone. It lay on the nightstand exactly where she’d left it. Completely dead—exactly as she’d expected.
Nina plugged it in and, while it powered on, felt something harden inside her—resolve. She couldn’t live in this web of lies anymore. She wouldn’t tolerate it for another second. She swallowed as the memory of his grip on her wrist and his cold voice in the car flashed through her mind.
“If you don’t want to end up back there again, lower your voice.”
A chill crept slowly down her spine at the look in his eyes, at the tone of his voice.
The phone powered on, and notifications began flooding the screen. Nina grabbed it without checking a single one and called Daphne first. God, she hadn’t contacted her in almost two weeks. Of course Daphne must’ve been worried.
Daphne picked up almost instantly, as if she’d been waiting for the call.
“Hello?”
