Leo looked down at Olivia’s forged signature one more time, then pressed call.
James had spent years mistaking Olivia’s trust for weakness.
By morning, Leo would make sure that mistake started costing him.
Chapter 10
Olivia
Olivia woke up the next morning and stared at a ceiling she did not recognize. For a few disorienting seconds, she did not remember where she was. Then the memories crashed over her like a physical weight.
The black folder.
The forged signature.
James’s face when he realized she had found the outbound transfers.
The way he tried to convince her she had forgotten signing documents that drained their marital funds.
The way she packed a duffel bag and walked out of her own house.
She was lying in the guest bed at Leo’s house. The mattress was comfortable, the sheets smelled like clean linen, and the house was perfectly peaceful. Yet, nothing inside her felt calm. She was safe, but she was not okay.
Her phone rested on the nightstand. The screen lit up with notifications. She had twenty missed calls and a string of messages from James.
At first, she could not bring herself to touch it. She lay under the covers, her heart pounding. Eventually, she reached out and pulled the device toward her.
She scrolled through the texts. The tone had shifted drastically as the night went on. At first, James sounded concerned:
Where are you?
Come home so we can talk.
Olivia baby, please answer me.
Then, the messages turned defensive:
You're making this worse than it needs to be.
You don't understand what you found.
This is exactly why I didn't want you looking through things alone.
By dawn, they had become purely controlling:
Do not involve anyone else in our marriage.
You need to come home before you make a mistake you can't undo.
That last message made a cold knot form in her stomach. It hurt, but it also sparked a flicker of deep, unfamiliar anger. He did not ask if she was okay. He asked where she was, what she was doing, and how much damage she might cause him.
Olivia opened the keyboard. She started typing a reply three different times.
Why did you do this?
How could you use my name?
Was any of it real?
