Chapter 3

THE WOMAN WHO PLANNED EVERYTHING

Melania’s POV

The moment the hospital room door clicked shut, I stopped crying. I wiped the tears from my cheeks and stared at my reflection in the dark window.

Pale face, dry face, trembling hands.. Very perfect.  I reached for the glass of water beside my bed and took a slow sip.

Then I smiled. Riona Vesper had finally learned what it felt like to lose. She had been wearing my life for five years.

My man. My home. My name beside his. My place in the Wren family. Everything that should have belonged to me and now she was sitting in a police station, accused of trying to kill me.

I had never poisoned myself. That would have been stupid. The pills had been harmless enough to make me collapse, but the real poison had been the story surrounding them. Riona’s fingerprints on the glass. The threatening messages from her number. The footage of her entering my suite.

The blood. Every piece had been placed exactly where it needed to be. I had planned most of it myself not because I enjoyed hurting her.

Because I had learned a long time ago that powerless women did not get second chances.

My father had once owned three companies. We had lived in a house with marble floors and servants who knew our names. Then everything disappeared.

Accounts frozen. Properties seized. Friends stopped answering calls. People who had called my mother Madam suddenly crossed the street to avoid her.

I remembered sitting beside her while she cried over bills she couldn’t pay. I remembered asking why nobody helped us. She had looked at me and said something I never forgot.

“People only respect you when they need something from you.”

I was sixteen. I believed her, and I will never forget it.

So when Caelan Wren walked back into my life years later, I didn’t see only the man I had once loved. I saw security, power and the life that had been stolen from me.

And I would never surrender that life to another woman. Especially not Riona. She had always been easy to study. She woke early. She checked Caelan’s schedule before her own. She avoided public arguments. She hated causing scenes and she trusted her husband so much. 

That last part was almost laughable. Riona believed love meant giving someone the benefit of the doubt until there was nothing left to give. Caelan was her weakness. I understood that before she did. I also understood Caelan’s. He couldn’t resist a person he believed was helpless.

So I gave him a helpless woman to protect. A frightened mother. A sick child. A woman with nowhere else to go. I didn’t need to tell him to choose me. I only needed to make choosing me feel like a decent thing to do.

And Riona had helped me without realizing it. Every time she questioned me, I looked hurt. Every time she tried to speak privately with Caelan, I withdrew. Every time she became frustrated, I apologized.

I never called her cruel. I let Caelan decide that for himself. That was the trick.

People trusted their own conclusions more than they trusted someone else’s accusation. A soft knock interrupted my thoughts.

Caelan entered. I immediately let my shoulders droop.

“Caelan.”

He crossed the room quickly, “How are you feeling?”

I looked away.

“Better.”

“You should rest.”

“I know.”

His expression was tense, “Riona refused to sign.”

My fingers tightened around the blanket. For the first time that night, irritation flashed through me. That woman was supposed to be easier to break.

“She thinks I did this,” I whispered.

Caelan’s jaw tightened, “She threatened you.”

“She was angry.”

“You don’t have to defend her.”

“I wasn’t.”

I looked up at him, “I just don’t want your marriage destroyed because of me.”

He stared at me. There it was. The guilt. I could almost taste it.

“You’re not destroying anything,” he said.

I lowered my eyes, “She hates me.”

“I’ll handle it.”

My lips curved slightly. There was the answer I wanted. I didn’t need to ask what he meant. Caelan Wren had always believed that problems could be solved by taking control. And now he believed Riona was the problem.

“Please don’t hurt her,” I whispered.

His eyes hardened, “She needs to understand there are consequences.”

I looked frightened but inside, I was smiling. Exactly. He was doing the work for me. Caelan stepped closer and touched my shoulder.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I leaned into his hand, “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

A lie. I wanted much more. I wanted his house. His company. His name. And I wanted Riona to understand that five years of marriage had not made her irreplaceable. My phone vibrated beneath the blanket.

I waited until Caelan left. Then I checked it.

One message.

-Don’t let Riona leave Aurelia alive with that evidence.-

My smile disappeared. I read it again. Then again.

I typed: Who are you?

No response. I stared at the screen. I knew about the evidence. I knew Riona had photographed something before leaving Wrenhold. I knew enough to understand that it could become a problem. But I had never told anyone that I knew.

Someone else did. Someone who had been watching. I typed again.

What evidence?

Nothing. My fingers tightened around the phone. I hated being ignored. I hated not knowing. Most of all, I hated the feeling crawling beneath my skin.

Fear. I had spent years making sure I was never powerless again. I wasn’t about to become someone’s pawn. The door opened.

I immediately locked my phone and looked up. Caelan’s assistant stood there.

“Miss Vale?”

“Yes?”

“There’s been a development.”

“What?”

He hesitated, “Word about Mrs. Wren’s pregnancy has spread inside Wrenhold.”

For one second, I simply stared at him.

Pregnancy. Riona was pregnant. Caelan’s child.

My stomach twisted. Then I smiled. Not because I was happy. Because I had just been handed another weapon.

A pregnant woman accused of attempted murder would look unstable, obsessed and desperate. 

And if Caelan believed Riona had tried to hurt me while carrying his child, his guilt would turn into anger.

I could use that. I could use everything.

“Thank you,” I said sweetly.

When he left, I picked up my phone again. A new message appeared.

-The husband is not the target. The wife is.-

My smile vanished. I stared at the words.

No. That wasn’t possible. I had thought Riona was simply an obstacle. Someone I needed removed from my way. But if someone else wanted her gone…

Why?

What did she know?

My mind raced through everything I knew about Riona. Her work at Wrenhold. The property acquisitions. The waterfront development. The financial reports she had recently questioned. I remembered one conversation from two weeks earlier. Riona had asked Caelan why several development payments had been routed through a company she didn’t recognize.

Caelan had dismissed it. I had forgotten about it.

Now I can't. My phone vibrated again. Another message.

If she survives the divorce, we all lose.

I slowly lowered the phone. For the first time that night, I didn’t smile. Someone wasn’t helping me destroy Riona. Someone was using me to destroy her.

And whoever it was knew exactly what she had discovered.