“I chose to chase down the errand boy and finally caught up with the lad.Took me until now to get the truth out of him.He’s loyal to her, but my threats eventually managed to sway him.”Murry looked directly at Adrian, just as Kendrick had done when he’d come to deliver the news of Evie’s death.“Your wife passed him a note in that alley – a note intended for Chief Constable Kendrick.I let the boy deliver it but not before I read it.”
“And?”Adrian gripped the back of the chair standing before him, his fingers digging into the wood until it felt like his knuckles might snap.
“It merely said, ‘Please confirm that my orders remain the same.’”
This couldn’t be happening.
It felt like the ground had opened up beneath his feet.
She was his bloody wife now.
His lungs grew unbearably tight.He couldn’t breathe, yet he somehow managed to ask, “Anything else?”
“Apparently, she’s been in constant contact with the chief constable since the two of you met.More than that, she used the boy to track your movements.I…I have no words, sir.No excuse will suffice, so I understand if you want to punish me for failing you.”
Adrian stared at him while the happiness he had experienced these past few days unraveled.“If I didn’t see what was right in front of my bloody eyes, how can I expect you to have done so?”
“Sir, I—”
Teeth clenching as steel pushed through every limb, banishing all traces of softness, he turned his back on Murry.“Leave me.”
The valet was wise enough to know not to linger or to say anything more before slipping out of the room.The door closed with a soft click that stood in complete contrast to what Adrian felt.He wanted to smash his fist through the window – shatter the glass as surely as the illusion his wife had crafted had just been shattered.
Whatever dreams he’d had of sharing the details of his life with her had been torn from his grasp.She’d deceived him, wormed her way into his heart, convinced him she was on his side—while actually working against him.
Incredulous, he stared out onto the garden where she still strolled.Rage didn’t come close to describing the ravenous beast now sinking its teeth deep into his flesh.Betrayal.The woman upon whom he’d thought he could fully depend, the person closest to him, was his greatest foe.
He couldn’t trust her.
Worst of all, he was stuck with her until death did them part.
She sent him another smile.A wave followed – an eager request for him to join her.
He’d rather eat poison, but managed to smile past the anger instead.A painful knot in his chest reminded him of the place where his heart had once been as he stepped out into the garden.Strolling through beams of sunshine, he went to greet her.She met him with fondness in her blue eyes, and he placed a soft kiss to her cheek, murmured something sweet in her ear, all while allowing one truth to cement itself in his mind.
There was no coming back from this.He would never forgive her.
* * *
