“No, Frank. This isn’t over.”
She would make him pay for every single thing he’d done to her—for her humiliation and for the pain he’d just inflicted.
“I’m sorry I was blind for so long, Frank. But don’t doubt it—my eyes are finally wide open now. And if you think you’ve won, I hate to disappoint you. I knew Vivian was your mistress a long time ago. She shouldn’t have pretended to be my friend.”
For the first time, Frank looked genuinely surprised. So he hadn’t known about Vivian’s double game.
“I’ve collected enough evidence to have you not only thrown out of the company but sent to prison for financial crimes. And if anything happens to me, if you ever try to lock me in a psych ward again, you can be sure someone I trust will deliver everything to the board and to the authorities. And that person isn’tRobert.”
She was bluffing. Of course she didn’t actually have any of that. But Frank didn’t need to know that. She only needed to buy herself time. He wouldn’t get a single dollar more from her.
“Let’s say we understand each other, Frank. And think carefully about how you’re going to explain to everyone why your wife’s shares ended up in your mistress’s hands—who also happens to have your son.. Doesn’t look very convincing, does it? You’ve got thirty minutes to be out of this house.”
She turned and stormed out of his office, ran up to the attic, half-expecting Frank to follow. After everything he’d done, she truly feared him now. What if he decided to kill her? The thought sent ice crawling down her spine.
She listened to every sound in the house. And finally Frank’s car pulled out of the driveway.
The tension finally eased, but her breathing didn’t. Her heart was still pounding, her lungs burning. What she’d said would only protect her for a little while.
And after that—what was she supposed to do?
CHAPTER 14
After the conversation with Frank, after his confession that she’d been nothing more than a tool to him, after the way he had quite literally robbed her—leaving her only the house and a monthly handout—Nina was completely shattered.
Once, she had a fortress—her father and her husband. They had always protected her. She had lived as if behind a stone wall, convinced that nothing could threaten her, that her world was unbreakable.
And now she was standing in the ruins of her own life.
Whenever she closed her eyes, images flared in her mind. Frank’swords. His cold gaze.
“I just used you.”
His indifferent voice.
“I decided I’d improve my life with your help.”
She was suffocating. Sleep wouldn’t come. And how could it, when her life had just collapsed? When she’d believed in something for so many years and it had turned out to be a lie?
She couldn’t lie in that bed anymore. She couldn’t just stay there.
She needed to do something. But what? Go stand outside Vivian’s house and scream that she was a filthy thief who had stolen her husband? Turn into a pathetic, humiliated mess who had only just learned that her husband had lived a double life for twenty years?
No.
But before she had time to decide what to do, Nina was already on her feet, pulling a robe on over her pajamas and grabbing her car keys.
She didn’t even know where she was going. She just wanted to clear her head. The house was too hollow, too quiet.
But suddenly she arrived at Lynn's house.
Why?
She didn’t know herself.
She stayed in the car, turned off the headlights, and stared at the dark windows. Everything was quiet, peaceful. She couldn’t explain why she was here, why she didn’t just turn around and leave. Maybe becauseJasper Garth had been her starting point. Her first mistake.
Maybe because if not for him, she wouldn’t have ended up in this hell.
