Chapter 3

It was Sasha's parents.

The house my father, Arthur Banks, had left me had been transferred to a pair of strangers without my knowledge, and without them paying a single cent.

Blood rushed to my head. I charged inside and threw open the study door.

That room used to hold my father's paintings.

There had been more than a hundred of them. Now the room was bare.

"Where are the paintings?"

"What paintings? I don't know. We threw them out ages ago."

Sasha's mother, Rhonda Reyes, refused to meet my eyes. "Who are you, anyway? I'm calling the police!"

"Elena, what are you doing here?"

At the same moment, Andrew's voice rang out from the doorway, and I watched him stride in.

"I came to my own house. Andrew, why was my house transferred to them?"

I didn't even need to ask who had done it.

It could only be the man in front of me, the man who had shared my bed for three years and knew almost everything about my background.

"Because Sasha's parents are getting on in years, and she wanted to bring them to the city so they could retire here. This house your dad left you is close to the office. It's convenient."

"This is my inheritance from my father!" I could barely keep my emotions in check. "I signed a prenup. The house belongs to me alone. It isn't marital property at all!"

"But you also signed an amendment."

Andrew calmly unlocked his phone and held up a screenshot of an agreement in front of me.

It was a document I had never seen before.

"You tricked me?" My breath shook. "There's no way I ever signed something like that.

"Either you forged my signature, or you deliberately hid what it was and got me to sign it without knowing.

"I'm calling the police. I'm reporting you for unlawfully seizing someone else's property!"

I took out my phone.

Sasha dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud, sobbing. "Mrs. Cathcart, I'm begging you, don't kick my parents out!

"They're old. You can't throw them out on the street! I'll pay you whatever this house is worth. Please, just don't call the police," she begged.

"Enough!"

Andrew's furious roar cut her off as he planted himself in front of her. "Elena, do you have to make this so ugly?

"I gave them the house. I'm your husband. I have the right to do whatever I want with all your property!"

"You hear that? Sasha's boss said it himself. This is our home now!"

Rhonda yanked my arm and gave me a hard shove.

"Who do you think you are? Get out!"

I crashed hard onto the floor. An ashtray tumbled down and struck me right on the temple.

Something cold trickled down my face. I reached up and touched a smear of bright red.

"Elena!"

Panic flashed across Andrew's eyes, and he caught hold of me.

"You..."

He glanced at the cut on my temple, then turned his head away with a helpless sigh. "Old people don't know their own strength. Don't hold it against them.

"Let's end it here. Take this card. There's $2,000 on it. Buy something to clean up that cut and bandage it, and use the rest to buy some supplements for your mom.

"The PIN is your birthday. Don't say anything else."

He handed me a card.

In three years of marriage, it was the first card whose PIN I'd ever been "allowed" to know.

But I only curled my lips into a smile.

Then I picked up a pair of scissors nearby and cut the card in half right in front of him.

"Hello, is this Scott Leighton, the attorney? I'd like to consult you about a few things..."

"Are you out of your mind?"

Andrew snatched my phone away, furious.

"Don't you know Sasha is up for a promotion review right now? Do you have any idea what a lawsuit at a time like this will do to her record?"

I ignored him.

I slowly got to my feet, grabbed my phone back, and walked out.

"Elena, don't kid yourself. You don't have a single cent to your name. What are you going to fight me with?"

Andrew's cold laughter followed me out.

He thought I'd finally accepted reality.

Meanwhile, I stuck to my schedule and planned everything out, right up until the day before I was set to leave.

That was when I got a phone call.

"Elena, you need to come back right away! Someone trashed your mom's house!"