CHAPTER 3- THE VOICES SHE COULD NEVER FORGET

Monday came slower than I could have ever prayed for. Spending two whole days stuck in the house with Gale and having to pretend that every single word from his mouth didn't make my skin crawl was agonizing.

I couldn't help but be deeply wary of anything he handed me. Every plate of food, every glass of water he slid my way remained completely untouched, passed off under the carefully rehearsed lie that I would consume it later.

It was irrational and I knew that.

This Gale hadn’t poisoned me yet. But my body only remembered the burning sensation that had torn through my throat before everything went dark.

My son—or rather, Chloe’s son—was even harder to navigate. I couldn't bring myself to hate the boy no matter how i tried. He might have been at the scene of my death, but what did a child under ten years old truly know? his parents were the ones to blame. So, I did my best not to act hostile toward him, even if playing the affectionate mother made my blood run cold.

I spent those two days researching instead of idling around. I might have returned three years into the past, but my memory regarding things I wasn't initially interested in was far from accurate—especially when it came to the inner workings of Gale’s business. If I was going to bring a man like Gale down, , I needed to know far more than I currently did before stepping foot into the company.

I spent hours online studying the Ashford Group and its recent corporate dealings, So much of the information felt completely foreign to me, proving just how blindly ignorant I had been in my past life and why it had been so easy for them to deceive me.

“Honey! It’s time to leave!” Gale’s thick voice called out from downstairs, snatching me from another dark daydream.

I forced a gentle, practiced smile onto my face as I walked down the staircase. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

“You look really good today, Evelyn,” he murmured, taking my elbow and leading me out the front door.

“Thanks, darling. I want to make a good first impression since I’m visiting your company.”

His expression brightened with obvious pride. Just as I expected, his vanity was easy to feed.

We hit the road soon after, and I was paraded around by Gale’s side like a trophy for most of the morning before being tucked away in his executive office with old meeting minutes. Meanwhile, I explicitly instructed my personal attorney, Daniel, to quietly gather every single contract bearing my signature so I could inspect what else Gale had coerced me into signing away.

By the end of a full week of steady office visits, Gale grew bored of playing the attentive husband, giving me the exact opening I needed.

The moment he left for a long high-level meeting, I moved before my brain could second-guess the risk.

I pulled open the first desk drawer I could find and spread the folders across his desk, my heart hammering violently against my ribs. I spent five frantic minutes digging through drawers, finding nothing beyond standard corporate forms and routine transaction histories. I needed real legal leverage to break that postnup and file for divorce.

Scanning the room once more, my eyes landed on a heavy wooden desk along the far wall. Tucked behind a false wooden panel at the base was a hidden compartment containing a digital safe.

A glowing keypad and a gleaming handle stared back at me. A passcode. My fingers tapped anxiously against the wood as adrenaline surged through my veins. Time was ticking down fast. What did I even know about Gale’s passwords?

On pure instinct, I punched six digits into the keypad: 090902.

When the heavy mechanical click echoed through the silent room, a bitter laugh escaped my chest. September 9th. Chloe’s birthday. Even the password protecting his darkest corporate secrets belonged to the woman he truly loved.

I pulled the safe door open and reached inside, grabbing a stack of thick leather-bound folders. The title printed on the first made my breath catch in my throat: Shell Companies & Offshore Transactions.

My eyes widened as I flipped through page after page detailing an elaborate network Gale used to launder millions through fake entities, false invoices, and offshore accounts. Every single page was enough to send him to prison for life if it ever reached the proper authorities.

I whipped out my phone, opening the camera app instantly. I didn't have time to read everything now, but these photos were more than enough to dismantle his entire empire. After making sure every page was clearly captured, I locked the safe and carefully restored the wooden panel.

Stepping quickly toward the office door, I pressed my ear against the polished wood.

“...did you see how rude the boss was when he rejected those investors earlier?” a secretary gossiped near the lounge. “They’re huge rising stars in this corporate world, but I guess Mr. Ashford prefers sticking to what's comfortable. Their venture proposal was incredible.”

I pulled the door open, clutching my phone tightly.

“Where is my husband?”

“He’s still in the main boardroom, Mrs. Ashford,” she offered quickly.

I gave a polite nod and walked down the quiet hallway.

As I rounded the corner near the executive elevators, three men in severe suits stepped out of the boardroom corridor, their expressions stoic and severe.

“That man will live to regret the decision he made today,” one of them remarked coldly as they brushed right past me.

I froze dead in my tracks.

The sound of that deep voice sent a sharp, violent shock straight down my spine. My head snapped around immediately, but they were already stepping onto the private elevator, their backs turned to me.

Where... where had I heard that voice before? It hadn't been that low or controlled. It had been desperate, frantic, and drowned out by the terrifying haze of my own death...

“Evelyn!”

The memory of three frantic male voices shouting my name as I bled out on the marble floor echoed violently in my ears. It was the exact same voice.

My eyes stayed locked on the closing elevator doors, a surge of confusion competing with my desire for revenge and my search for my child.

Suddenly, a loud broadcast chimed from the wall-mounted television screen in the lounge, pulling my attention away:

"Blackwood Enterprises Launches Nationwide Orphanage Philanthropy Initiative."

I turned toward the monitor, my breath catching in my throat. The screen displayed a high-resolution photo of the exact three men who had just walked past me, surrounded by beaming children. But it was the rolling headline underneath that made my pulse spike:

Partnering with over ninety percent of childcare foundations and orphanages across the country...

A network that vast... a database that complete...

My biological son could be registered in one of those very institutions. Working through their network could help me find him infinitely faster than searching blindly on my own.

I stared at the picture of the three men, my mind linking the dots together. I pulled out my phone, typed the contact number displayed at the bottom of the screen, and saved the entry into my contacts: Blackwood Enterprises.

They were no longer just Gale's rejected rivals. For the first time since returning to the past… I had finally found my first real lead toward bringing my son home. Whether it was fate or coincidence no longer mattered.