Chapter 2 - The Paper Trail of Betrayal
While my mother slept in a bed with six-hundred-thread-count sheets, I sat in my new office.
The room was filled with the glow of three different monitors.
I wasn't looking at my business contracts tonight.
I was looking at Caden’s soul—or what was left of it.
I had hired a private investigator the moment I bought this mansion.
I knew that a man who treated his mother-in-law like a slave was hiding more than just a bad attitude.
The files on my screen confirmed my darkest fears.
Caden hadn't been "investing" the monthly allowance I gave him.
He had been funneling money into a private account in his mother’s name.
Over the last four years, he had moved nearly two million dollars.
My money.
The money I earned while traveling across the globe.
The money I earned while he sat on the couch playing games.
He and Bonnie had a plan.
They were waiting for our seventh anniversary—the year our prenuptial agreement weakened.
They were planning to file for divorce and take half of Nebula Systems.
Bonnie had even been scouting apartments in Paris.
She had a folder on her laptop titled "The Great Escape."
I leaned back in my leather chair and laughed.
It was a cold, hollow sound.
They thought they were the hunters.
They didn't realize I had been watching them from the canopy the whole time.
I opened a second file.
This one was even more personal.
Caden had been seeing a woman named Elena for six months.
He had told her I was a "workaholic beast" who didn't understand his needs.
He had bought her a car—a luxury SUV—using my business account.
I looked at the date of the purchase.
It was the same day my mother had been diagnosed with advanced arthritis.
The same day I had asked Caden to take her to the specialist because I was in London.
He told me he was too busy with "work."
In reality, he was at a jewelry store with Elena.
I felt the rage rising again, hot and thick.
But I didn't smash anything.
I didn't scream.
I simply highlighted the car's registration and sent it to my legal team.
"Report this vehicle as stolen," I messaged them.
"And freeze the Laine family trust immediately."
I looked back at the house across the street.
Caden was on the porch now, holding a flashlight.
He was trying to look through the windows of the mansion.
He thought he could find a way in.
He thought he could charm his way back into my life.
"You're not coming in, Caden," I whispered to the empty room.
"Not tonight. Not ever."
I opened my son’s baby monitor on my tablet.
Donovan was sleeping peacefully, his small hand tucked under his chin.
He didn't have to hear the fighting anymore.
He didn't have to see his grandmother crying in the kitchen.
I had protected him from the fire.
Now, I was going to burn the world that tried to hurt him.
I pulled up the last secret I had hidden from everyone.
The deed to the house across the street.
The house Caden thought he lived in.
The house he called "his" home.
I looked at the signature on the mortgage.
It wasn't his.
It wasn't even ours.
The house was owned by a holding company called "Alexis Rising."
A company named after my mother.
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And I had just signed the eviction notice.
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