Chapter 4 - The Enemy Inside His House
Marcus Vale had attended every important moment of our marriage.
Our wedding.
My father's funeral.
Colton's thirty-fifth birthday.
The night we learned I was pregnant.
He had sat at our dining room table, raised a glass of expensive bourbon, and told Colton that fatherhood would finally “teach the bastard patience.”
I had laughed.
Three months later, Marcus sent Ren a handmade cradle from Italy.
We never used it because Colton decided the wood finish smelled strange.
Now I wondered if every gesture had been calculated.
“Succession means exactly what it sounds like,” Colton said.
We were sitting in Naomi's conference room the next morning.
No one had slept much.
“Marcus intends to replace me.”
Tom stood near the window.
His face looked ten years older than it had the previous week.
“And Jade?”
“An access point,” Colton said.
The words were cold.
Too cold.
I knew that tone.
It was the one he used when emotion became dangerous.
I looked at him.
“Don't reduce her to some weapon Marcus used against you.”
His eyes shifted toward mine.
“You chose to sleep with her.”
“I know.”
“Say it.”
His jaw tightened.
“I chose to sleep with her.”
“Good.”
Tom looked uncomfortable.
I didn't care.
For years, Colton's world had been built around protecting powerful men from the full weight of their own decisions.
I wasn't going to participate anymore.
Naomi placed a financial report on the table.
“The Portuguese company paid Jade three hundred thousand dollars in installments beginning nine months ago.”
“Before she met Colton,” Priya said.
“Yes.”
That mattered.
Jade had not accidentally become Marcus's tool after beginning an affair.
She had approached my husband already working for someone else.
Again, that did not make Colton innocent.
It made him careless.
Naomi continued.
“Nolan Pierce received payments too.”
“How much?” Tom asked.
“Nearly two million.”
Colton's expression hardened.
“Nolan manages the southern warehouse routes.”
“Which means?” I asked.
“He could cause significant disruption.”
I looked at Colton.
“What kind?”
He hesitated.
Old habit.
Protect Lauren from the ugly details.
I stared until he answered.
“Shipments disappear. Businesses lose money. Agreements fail. People decide I'm weak.”
“People like Marcus.”
“Yes.”
“Then Marcus steps in.”
“Yes.”
Simple.
Ugly.
Dangerous.
Power was apparently less complicated than marriage.
Naomi's investigator, a retired federal agent named David Chen, joined us by video.
“There's another problem,” he said.
He shared a document.
A transfer of ownership agreement.
I recognized the name of one of Colton's commercial holding companies.
“What is that?” I asked.
Colton leaned closer.
His face changed.
“It's forged.”
David nodded.
“We believe so.”
The document supposedly transferred several warehouse properties from Beckett Holdings to a newly created company controlled through offshore accounts.
The signature looked exactly like Colton's.
“Marcus can't legally do this,” I said.
“He doesn't need it to survive legal review forever,” David replied. “He needs enough confusion to freeze assets and create leverage.”
Naomi added, “Especially if Colton disappears or becomes incapacitated.”
A chill ran through me.
Lisbon.
One-way ticket.
Marcus had expected Colton to leave the country.
Maybe he had expected him never to return.
Tom's voice was quiet.
“They were going to kill him.”
Colton did not react.
I did.
“Was Jade supposed to do it?”
“We don't know.”
I looked at him.
“And you were going willingly.”
His mouth tightened.
“Yes.”
“Because you believed you were smarter than everyone.”
“Yes.”
Again, no defense.
That should have satisfied me.
It didn't.
I had begun to understand that regret and repair were different things.
Colton regretted what he'd done.
That did not mean our marriage was repaired.
Not even close.
The investigation continued all morning.
At noon, Ren woke hungry.
I carried her into a private office.
Five minutes later, someone knocked softly.
Colton.
I almost told him to leave.
Instead, I said, “Come in.”
He opened the door only halfway.
“Can I see her?”
I looked at Ren.
Then at him.
“Yes.”
Colton entered slowly.
He kept several feet between us.
“She looks bigger.”
“She's twenty days old.”
“I missed three days.”
“Babies change.”
“I know.”
He looked like the sentence hurt.
Good, I thought.
Then immediately hated myself for thinking it.
I wasn't trying to punish him with Ren.
I had promised myself that.
Whatever happened between us, our daughter could not become a weapon.
“Wash your hands.”
He did.
Then I transferred Ren carefully into his arms.
Colton's entire body softened.
“Hey, bug.”
His voice cracked.
Ren opened her eyes.
For several seconds, she stared up at him with the unfocused seriousness of a newborn.
Colton smiled.
Then his eyes filled.
I looked away.
“She's been waking every two hours.”
“I should be doing that.”
“You made another arrangement.”
The words came out before I could stop them.
Colton closed his eyes briefly.
“I know.”
I hated how tired anger could make a person.
Sometimes fury is easier when the person you're furious with is cruel every minute.
Colton wasn't.
He could hold our daughter like she was the most precious thing in the universe and still have betrayed her mother.
People weren't simple enough to hate cleanly.
Ren made a tiny sound.
Colton kissed her forehead.
“I am so sorry.”
I couldn't tell whether he was speaking to her or me.
Maybe both.
“Colton.”
He looked up.
“If Marcus hadn't betrayed you, would you have told me about Jade?”
The question landed heavily.
He didn't answer quickly.
That was the answer.
“Eventually.”
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“After Lisbon?”
“Maybe.”
“After our daughter's first birthday?”
“No.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“I don't.”
I stared at him.
“That's why I can't come home.”
“I know.”
He handed Ren back without argument.
Before leaving, he stopped at the door.
“I spoke to Naomi.”
“About?”
“The temporary parenting agreement.”
My body stiffened.
“I'll sign it.”
“You haven't even seen the final version.”
“If it gives you space and lets me see Ren without making you feel trapped, I'll sign it.”
I didn't know what to say.
He left.
Later that afternoon, Naomi confirmed it.
Colton agreed to everything.
Three short visits each week.
No unscheduled appearances.
No tracking my location.
No Beckett employees near my residence without my written approval.
No removal of Ren from Georgia.
No interference with my personal accounts.
He could have fought every condition.
He didn't.
It was the first thing he had done since this began that felt less like control and more like surrender.
Then Jade called me.
Not texted.
Called.
My new number.
Only six people had it.
I answered because anger finally outweighed fear.
“Lauren.”
Her voice was smooth.
I had heard it once before at a company Christmas party.
I'd stood beside Colton while Jade shook my hand.
She had known then.
I had been pregnant.
She had looked at my stomach and smiled.
The memory made me sick.
“How did you get this number?”
“Your husband isn't as good at protecting secrets as he thinks.”
“What do you want?”
“To help you.”
I laughed.
“You slept with my husband.”
“He slept with me.”
“Yes. I hold him responsible too.”
A pause.
Maybe Jade hadn't expected that.
“You should know what Marcus is planning.”
“Then tell me.”
“Not on the phone.”
“No.”
“Lauren—”
“No secret meeting. No hotel. No dramatic café.”
“You're smarter than he thinks.”
“Colton doesn't think I'm stupid.”
“Doesn't he?”
The words stung.
“He lied to your face for weeks.”
“I'm aware.”
“He was going to Lisbon with me.”
“Also aware.”
“He bought me the scarf.”
My grip tightened on the phone.
“I know.”
“He told you it was part of a cover?”
“Yes.”
Jade laughed softly.
“That came later.”
I stopped breathing.
“What do you mean?”
“The scarf was ordered before he discovered the files.”
A cold wave moved through me.
“You're lying.”
“Check the receipt.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Then immediately called Colton.
He answered before the first ring finished.
“Lauren?”
“When did you order the scarf?”
Silence.
Everything inside me sank.
“Colton.”
“Eight days before Ren was born.”
“So Jade was telling the truth.”
“Yes.”
“You said it was part of maintaining the cover.”
“When I picked it up, it was.”
“But when you bought it?”
His voice was quiet.
“No.”
Tears filled my eyes.
Even during his confession, there had been another layer.
“I asked you for everything.”
“I know.”
“You still protected yourself.”
“I wasn't trying to—”
“Stop.”
He did.
“I cannot rebuild anything with a man who tells the truth in installments.”
“You're right.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you are.”
“Then why do you keep doing this?”
His answer was raw.
“Because every truth makes me more afraid you'll never come back.”
I closed my eyes.
“And every lie makes sure I won't.”
He inhaled sharply.
I continued.
“If there is anything else, tell me now.”
“There is.”
Of course.
“What?”
“The apartment in Lisbon.”
My heart dropped.
“What apartment?”
“I bought it.”
Jade's message returned to me.
Lisbon was supposed to be our beginning.
“Before or after you suspected her?”
“Before.”
I couldn't speak.
“It was an investment property,” he said quickly. “But I let Jade choose it. I told her we'd use it together.”
I leaned against the wall.
There are moments when the heart doesn't break dramatically.
It simply becomes tired.
“I have to go.”
“Lauren—”
“I said everything.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
I ended the call.
I cried quietly so Priya wouldn't hear.
Not because of the apartment.
Not really.
Because somewhere in Atlanta was a version of my husband I had never met.
A man who had looked at homes in Portugal with another woman while I folded newborn clothes.
That evening, I took off my wedding ring.
I placed it in Naomi's office safe.
Not because I had decided on divorce.
Because I needed to remember that being Colton Beckett's wife was not the only identity I had.
At 9:12, David Chen called.
They had located Jade.
She had checked into a hotel near the airport using another name.
But that wasn't the shocking part.
The shocking part was who had entered her room thirty minutes earlier.
Not Marcus.
Not Nolan.
May you like
Tom Beckett.
Colton's brother.
