Chapter 2

Kiara went off on me.

"Are you seeing this? This is my husband! We're the real couple! And this winery is mine now. Only I get to be here, and anyone else trying to come in will never make it!"

She continued, "I thought you were just some delusional fangirl or another artist from the same company, so I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. But you dared to slander me! Madelyn, get ready for my lawyer!"

At that moment, I couldn't hear what she was saying. My mind went blank when I saw Richard on Kiara's live stream.

Was it really Richard? Was that really my husband?

What in the world was happening?

Just as I was about to call Richard to figure it out, the trending hashtag #KiaraIsTheRichHeirsWife exploded online.

The tweets not only celebrated Kiara but also mocked and insulted me.

"Madelyn is just some nobody. How dare she latch onto him?"

"How shameless! Does she think a fake marriage certificate can turn her into Mrs. Montague? She really didn't expect the real Mrs. Montague to fight back on a live stream. Haha!"

"Kiara and Madelyn were both going to be on the same travel variety show. Looks like Madelyn's trying to ride the hype, but now she's completely messed it up."

"Why even keep her on the show? The director should have kicked her out. This is so embarrassing."

"Madelyn, you'd better apologize to Kiara and admit you were making things up, or you'll be getting sued!"

I fumed at the sight of all those comments and decided to confront her.

"Who the hell are you? Are you my husband's mistress?"

Even though deep down, I didn't want to believe Richard would cheat, the coincidences were starting to mess with my head.

The marriage certificate, the acquisition contract, the live stream appearance…

I couldn't think of anyone but a mistress pulling this off.

Kiara sent multiple tweets cursing me.

"You're the one who's the mistress! Are you still pretending to be the real deal?"

Then, she tagged the director of the travel show.

"@OwenCairn, you should fire Madelyn. I won't be on the same show with this trash!"

"Didn't Madelyn say the winery is hers? Well, I'm allowing Owen to film the show at Amie Winery. If Madelyn's got the guts, she can show up and see for herself if this is true!"

I was about to post my tweet when, out of nowhere, I was logged out of my Twitter account.

My company had stepped in and locked me out.

My agent immediately started working on damage control.

I called Richard, but it went straight to voicemail.

I tried his assistant, Leslie Wilcox. "Is your boss seeing someone else? Why isn't he answering his phone?"

Leslie responded confidently, "No way, ma'am. I've never seen another woman with him before. He's tied up with a confidential project, so he doesn't have his phone with him."

What a load of crap! He was out there partying with Kiara, laughing it up!

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got, so I hung up the phone in frustration.

There were just so many weird coincidences that it was making me wonder. Could Richard really have been keeping a mistress who was now flaunting their relationship online?

But I couldn't just sit there and wonder. I needed to catch him in the act myself!