Chapter 3

I sat straight up in bed, my heart pounding.

It felt as though someone had ripped away the thin layer covering my world and exposed the brutal truth underneath.

My supposedly secret relationship had never been secret at all.

Gavin had known from the beginning.

He knew about every date.

Every time I fell for my ex a little more.

He even knew exactly how humiliated and heartbroken I had been when it ended.

He had watched from the sidelines, letting me play out the entire ridiculous drama.

Then, at the critical moment, he had lifted one finger and made it all collapse.

A wave of nausea rolled through me.

Not from the cold.

From the realization that he had been playing me all along.

My secrets.

My feelings.

The most private parts of my life.

He had watched them, controlled them, and twisted them however he pleased.

That was more frightening than him openly keeping a mistress.

More frightening than the way he had dismissed my parents at dinner.

He did not just want to destroy our marriage.

He wanted to break me down until I had no strength left to fight him.

In that moment, I finally woke up.

I was no longer the Lily Winters who swallowed every insult in her marriage and begged for scraps of love.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

My face was pale, but my eyes were burning.

Then, slowly, they turned cold.

This had never been a simple affair or a messy marriage.

It was a trap Gavin had carefully built around me and my family.

And starting tonight, I was done letting him pull the strings.

I got out of bed, walked to the study, and pushed the door open without hesitation.

Gavin was leaning back in his executive chair, rolling a fountain pen between his fingers.

When he saw me, a mocking smile curved his lips.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Your little secret romance fell apart, and now Miss Winters has finally come looking to her husband for comfort?”

There was no effort to hide the ridicule in his voice.

Or the satisfaction.

He knew I had seen the text.

He wanted to see me embarrassed.

Helpless.

Broken.

But strangely, I felt calmer than ever.

At last, the man in front of me had dropped every mask.

I walked up to him and met his eyes.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Hart?” I said coolly. “Tired of your mistresses already, so now you’re looking for trouble with your wife?”

I gave a faint laugh.

“Or is my affair just not elegant enough for you? In a miserable marriage, finding someone to lean on is a pretty normal response, isn’t it?”

The second I finished speaking, Gavin’s expression darkened.

The pen in his hand creaked under the force of his grip.

He clearly had not expected me to talk back.

He rose from his chair and walked toward me, his tall frame carrying an unmistakable threat.

“Lily, don’t think your little games can stay hidden from me,” he said. “Your father’s company, your entire family, are in the palm of my hand. I can wipe them out overnight.”

He paused, his voice cold and final.

“I’m giving you two choices.”

“Be a good Mrs. Hart. Keep up appearances, and your family can keep living comfortably.”

“Or make a scene. Then your family goes under, and you lose everything along with them.”

He was using the one thing I cared about most to force me back under his control.

But he had made one mistake.

He had underestimated how far I was willing to go.

My mind began moving quickly, weighing every possibility.

My family was my weakness.

But Gavin had weaknesses too.

I looked at his arrogant, untouchable face.

And somewhere deep inside me, a cold thought took shape.

I would not fight back just to get revenge.

I would fight back to take back everything that belonged to me.

Gavin Hart thought I was prey.

I would show him who the real hunter was.