Chapter 4

Russell froze, his expression locking in place. "You saw all that?"

I gave a small nod.

"It's not what you think. I doubled back to handle something for work and ran into her. She was drunk out of her mind. She latched onto me and wouldn't let go, so I dropped her off at the hospital since it was on the way.

"You know how much I can't stand her. When she was grabbing onto me, I wanted to rip her hand off."

The disgust in his eyes was practically overflowing when he said it. It didn't look like a lie. But something still felt off, even if I couldn't pinpoint what.

The exhaustion of early pregnancy washed over me again, and Russell hurried off to shower before climbing into bed beside me. "Get some sleep. I'll take you out for a walk tomorrow."

I curled into his chest and let the steady rhythm of his heartbeat settle me. It helped, a little. I closed my eyes and drifted off again.

But the sleep didn't last. I woke up less than three hours later.

I reached for Russell on instinct, and my hand found nothing but cold, empty sheets. I scrambled out of bed to look for him. The living room was pitch black, with only a thin sliver of light coming from the front door.

The door hadn't been closed all the way. I crept toward it and saw Vanessa with her arms wrapped tightly around Russell's waist, her face buried in his chest, looking utterly helpless.

"Russ, I know you still care about me. Please stop shutting me out."

Russell shoved her away, his face hard. "If you're still drunk, go back to the hospital. Don't show up at my house in the middle of the night pulling this."

"No." Vanessa's eyes were red as she lunged forward and clung to him again.

"You love me. You know you do. Otherwise you never would've given me the Eastport Marina project behind everyone's back.

"You only married her to get back at me, didn't you? To make me jealous?"

I stopped in my tracks, my heart slamming so hard that each beat felt like a fist against my ribs.

Russell said nothing. His silence was its own answer.

When he didn't deny it, Vanessa's eyes lit up like she'd won a bet. She rose onto her toes and pressed her lips to his.

Russell's entire body went rigid, but he didn't push her away. I wanted to scream, to stop it, but my throat clenched shut as if something was wound tight around it, and no sound came out.

The door slowly swung closed with a dull thud, sealing off the last trace of light. The dull ache in my chest sharpened into something knife-like, twisting until I couldn't breathe.

I didn't sleep the rest of the night, and Russell didn't come home.

He finally sent a text just before dawn. "Holly, something came up and I had to leave early. Be good and wait for me at home."

I let out a bitter laugh, and tears fell silently down my face. This love I'd fought so hard to hold onto was falling apart in my hands.

Just then, my phone rang. It was someone from the finance department at the company.

"Ms. Townsend, Mr. Grayson came into the office first thing this morning and transferred 30 million dollars out, saying he needed it urgently. I thought I should let you know."

I sat there listening, my nails digging so deep into my palms they broke the skin.

The startup capital for the Eastport Marina project was exactly 30 million. He hadn't just handed Vanessa the project on a silver platter. Now he was siphoning company funds to bankroll her too.

But before I could confront him about it, Russell came bursting through the front door, kicked the bedroom door open, and stormed toward me. His hand clamped around my throat and he pinned me with an ice-cold stare.

"Holly, how could you be this vicious?

"All I did was spend one night with her, and I didn't even touch her. But you sent people to beat her like that? If she hadn't fought her way out and come to me, she'd have lost a lot more than just her dignity."

I stared at him in disbelief, the blood draining from my entire body. "I didn't—"

Before I could get the words out, his palm cracked across my face. He shoved his phone in front of my eyes. The security footage showed Vanessa on the ground, surrounded by a group of thugs kicking and punching her.

At the very end of the video, one of the men they'd restrained said on camera, "Some woman named Holly Townsend paid us a hundred grand to rough her up and mess her up real good."

"The evidence is right here. What else could you possibly have to say?"

When he finished, he shoved me by the throat. My body flew backward and my stomach slammed into the sharp corner of the vanity.

A tearing pain ripped through my lower abdomen, and something warm and thick with the smell of blood began sliding down my thighs, dripping onto the floor one drop at a time.