Chapter 3

The next day, I drove to the Beacon Hill brownstone. Our brownstone. The multi-million dollar property we were supposed to call home.

The front door was ajar. I walked in and found them in the grand living room. Andrew, and a smug, triumphant Molly.

The first thing I noticed were the walls. The spaces I had designated for my architectural awards, for the blueprints of my completed projects, were gone. In their place were dozens of framed photos. Andrew and Molly at the beach. Andrew and Molly on a ski trip. Andrew and Molly laughing together. A shrine to their secret life.

Molly saw me and her face crumpled into a mask of tearful remorse.

"Oh, Jenny, I'm so, so sorry," she whimpered, clutching Andrew's arm. "I never meant for this to happen. I was just so scared and alone."

Andrew looked at me, his expression cold, expectant. He wanted me to absolve her. To absolve him.

I ignored them both and walked towards the staircase. As I passed Molly, she reached out, her hand brushing against my leg. I felt a sharp, stinging pain. I looked down. Four angry red scratches were welling up with blood on my calf. Her perfectly manicured nails were sharp.

It was so deliberate, so petty.

I shoved her away from me. "Get off me."

It wasn't a hard push, but Molly was a performer. She let out a theatrical gasp and stumbled backward, collapsing in a heap near the bottom of the grand staircase, clutching her stomach.

"My baby!" she shrieked.

Andrew's face contorted with rage. He didn't even look at my bleeding leg. He rushed to her side, his eyes blazing at me.

"Are you insane?" he snarled. "You're completely unhinged."

He gestured to the two security guards standing by the door, men who were on my payroll as much as his.

"Help Mrs. Lester-to-be cool off," he commanded, his voice dripping with venom. "The pool."

My blood ran cold. It was a chilly October day. The outdoor pool was unheated, the water frigid.

The guards hesitated for a second, looking at me with a flicker of pity before their faces went blank. They were his men first. They each took one of my arms and dragged me, struggling, out to the stone patio.

They threw me into the pool.

The shock of the icy water stole my breath. I surfaced, shivering violently, my teeth chattering. My leg throbbed, and I could see a faint cloud of red blooming in the water around it.

Through the glass doors, I could see Andrew kneeling by Molly, stroking her hair, murmuring comforting words. I couldn't hear everything, but a few phrases carried across the patio, clear and sharp as breaking glass.

"...marrying her is just for show... a shield... to protect you, my love... our real family..."

A shield. That's all I was. All I had ever been.

A sudden, sharp, twisting pain erupted in my lower abdomen. It was a thousand times worse than Molly's scratches. It was an agony so intense it made me gasp, swallowing a mouthful of freezing, chlorinated water.

I looked down. The faint red cloud around my leg was being overtaken by a much darker, thicker plume of blood, spreading from between my legs.

The stress, the cold, the fall I'd taken after he choked me. Something inside me had broken.

The world tilted, the edges of my vision going dark. The last thing I saw was Andrew's face, turned away from me, focused entirely on the girl he was protecting. Then, nothing.