Chapter 3: Move Out and Burn It All Down

Claire looked down at her own hands. "Of course. From now on, I live for myself."

"I'm going after my dreams again."

Tina Marsh's voice cracked with excitement. "Claire, I am so happy for you."

After hanging up, Claire stared at her packed suitcase.

Already past midnight she'd leave in the morning.

She'd barely stood up when her phone rang. Nathan.

Claire hesitated before answering.

But it wasn't just Nathan's voice that came through. A woman's voice too.

"Nathan, baby, why don't you go home tonight? Spend it with your wife."

A lighter clicked on his end the sound of a cigarette catching. "Go back to her? Just looking at her makes me sick."

"Vanessa, don't start."

Vanessa Reed.

So he hadn't been staying at the office these past few nights. He and Vanessa had built themselves a little love nest somewhere.

The words hit like a blade sliding between Claire's ribs.

She didn't hang up. This call had clearly been made on purpose. She wanted to hear exactly what Vanessa wanted her to hear.

Vanessa laughed, sweet as syrup. "Nathan, be honest you really hate Claire? A whole year of marriage, and there's never been even a flicker of feeling there?"

"She's gorgeous. She's got presence. She used to be the golden daughter of the Bennett family, one of the biggest names in the state... You're telling me none of that ever got to you?"

Nathan's voice came back with a lazy half-smile in it. "Like her? Not a chance. There's only you."

"Vanessa, you're jealous again."

She scolded him playfully. "Well, whose fault is it that you're hiding me like some dirty secret? I can't even show my face."

"I know my family's nothing special. What do I have that compares to her?"

"Why would you compare yourself to her at all?"

"You're worth a thousand of her to me."

"You know her birth mother abandoned her at the hospital and got hit by a car wandering the streets in shock afterward, right? Dead on the spot."

"If some nurse with a grudge against the Bennetts hadn't swapped babies out of spite, Claire would've grown up in foster care, exactly where she belonged."

"She got lucky some other girl paid the price for years so Claire could live like royalty. And now that the truth's out, she's nothing. Some nobody with no name and no family, and the Bennetts don't want her either."

"Honestly? I was thrilled when her fake identity blew up after everything she did to force me out of your life."

"Now even the one thing she had going for her that fancy last name turns out to be a lie. What's she got left to compare to you now?"

"You're one of a kind to me, Vanessa. Nobody else even comes close."

Just a day ago, words like these would have destroyed her.

Now, hearing them again, Claire found she could stay perfectly calm.

She hung up quietly and saved the recording.

Whatever point Vanessa had been trying to prove, whatever satisfaction she'd been chasing she'd started this fight. Claire would finish it.

They didn't see her as a person. They wanted to humiliate her, bleed her dry, and toss what was left.

Fine. She'd make sure they knew exactly what it felt like to lose everything.

And now she had the evidence, delivered straight to her doorstep. Might as well start with exposing the affair.

Claire woke from a short nap and immediately threw up in the bathroom.

Once the nausea passed, her head cleared.

This marriage was finished. That part was settled.

But it wouldn't be simple. Not now that the Wades knew about the pregnancy every one of them convinced, same as Nathan, that the baby carried Wade blood. They wouldn't let her walk away easily.

Nathan and Vanessa clearly thought they'd already won. Especially Vanessa.

That phone call last night had one purpose: reassure Vanessa that even if Claire found out about the affair, she wouldn't dare make a scene.

Because to the outside world, Claire had already lost everything. No Wade name behind her, she was nothing. And now she was pregnant again, trapped.

Even knowing her husband had a mistress on the side, everyone assumed she'd just swallow it and stay quiet.

Vanessa wanted her miserable. Wanted her broken.

Claire had no intention of giving her that satisfaction.

She was done tolerating betrayal.

She had never been some parasite that could only survive by clinging to someone else.

Claire ran into the family doctor on her way downstairs.

"Mrs. Wade, perfect timing. Time for your injection."

Claire walked over and picked up the syringe herself. "This is really a pregnancy-support shot?"

After her first IVF round, Nathan had arranged for a private doctor to come by daily and administer injections — for the health of her and the baby, he'd said. All imported, all supposedly safe.

Her stomach was covered in bruises and swelling at this point.

She'd never once skipped a dose, not wanting Nathan to worry after the first pregnancy failed. She'd told herself maybe this round would stick because of these shots.

Now she knew it was nothing but a con.

"Dr. Foster. How much is Nathan paying you?"

Amy Foster, the family doctor an unremarkable-looking young woman went rigid, pupils contracting.

"You"

How does she know? How much does she actually know?

Claire read the answer in her face immediately.

The day before, when Claire had confronted Dr. Lawson at the clinic, she'd mentioned the daily anti-miscarriage injections. He'd nearly exploded.

"That's absurd. Mrs. Wade, you're carrying twins, and every single blood panel came back completely normal."

"There is zero indication of miscarriage risk. So why are you being injected for it?"

"This is doing actual harm to you and the babies for no medical reason!"

Claire had been shaking with fury. "But I've had brutal morning sickness every single day. I can't keep anything down."

Dr. Lawson: "Random injections can cause exactly that kind of reaction even in a perfectly healthy person."

"Stop taking them immediately. I can't guarantee your safety otherwise."

He'd run every test again on the spot. Result: no abnormalities in her or the twins. Perfectly healthy.

"As for what's actually in those injections we'd need to send a sample for analysis."

Claire already knew exactly whose fingerprints were on this.

Even carrying his child with his precious first love, Nathan still wanted her suffering. Wanted her in pain the entire pregnancy.

Claire's stare turned to ice as she locked eyes with Dr. Foster. "I used to think doctors had some kind of ethical code. Now all I have to do is walk this vial into a police station and get it tested at a lab."

"I'll have you charged with drug abuse and assault."

"You really think Nathan's going to protect you?"

"How many years do you think you'd get?"

Panic swept across Amy's face instantly.

"Mrs. Wade, I was just following Mr. Wade's orders. You you can't do this to me."

"It would end my career."

Claire fought to keep her voice level. Should my life just be collateral damage instead?

"Dr. Foster. You get to decide who you work for next."

Amy wasn't stupid. Nathan had money and power, sure but she'd been caught red-handed, and she had no cards left to play.

Once she'd scurried off, Claire looked up at the massive wedding photo still hanging in the living room.

Back then, Nathan had genuinely seemed like a devoted husband. Even after her fake identity blew up, even under pressure from the entire Wade family, he hadn't divorced her.

She'd thought that made him solid. A partner worth building a life with.

More fool her, for not seeing the performance underneath.

Now a new, colder question surfaced: if the pregnancy-support injections were fake was her original infertility diagnosis even real?

Claire wanted out of this house. Immediately.

She hired a cleaning crew online, several of them, no-nonsense types.

While she sat eating breakfast, they took the giant wedding photo down off the wall.

Everything in that house that belonged to her gone. Cups, dishes, picture frames.

Every souvenir from every date they'd taken after the wedding.

She had them all thrown into the fire pit in the backyard.

The flames took everything.

Nathan. This marriage. She hadn't wanted either in the first place.

Suitcase in hand, she called Amy Foster one more time. "Dr. Foster, I need a signed medical note. State that I'm experiencing pregnancy instability and threatened miscarriage from stress."

"Send it directly to Nathan Wade."

If Vanessa didn't want to hide anymore, Claire had no objection to helping her come out into the open exactly the way she wanted.

She hung up and pressed a hand gently to her stomach. "Babies, Mommy's sorry that wasn't a curse against you. Mommy's just going to deal with two very bad people, so don't be upset with me."

"Mommy loves you. You're all I have left now."

"Grow strong in there for me, okay?"

Once she stopped the fake miscarriage-prevention shots, the morning sickness eased almost immediately.

She needed to recover fast. Protect the twins.

And before they were born, sever every last thread tying her to the Wade family and this marriage.

Claire had just settled into her newly rented apartment when Nathan called. He'd clearly gotten the fabricated medical note from Amy Foster.

His voice was tight with worry. "Claire Dr. Foster says you've been under trauma, showing signs of miscarriage. Weren't you home this whole time? Who upset you?"

"Tell me. I'll make it right."

The pregnancy was the only thing he actually cared about.

Claire let her voice go faint and weak. "Nathan... I heard Vanessa's back. Is that true?"

"I know you never really let her go."

"She always thought I schemed to push her out."

Vanessa's name landed, and dead silence fell on his end of the line.

After a long pause, Nathan's voice dropped low. "Claire, did someone feed you garbage? Don't buy into nonsense like that. There's only you. She and I are ancient history."

"If this stress cost us the baby, I don't know what I'd do."

Claire listened to the performance without a word.

He kept going. "I just care about you. Maybe too much."

"I'm relieved to hear you say that."

"Listen I'm at the hospital right now, resting up for a work thing, taking care of some business. I won't be home for a few days, can't check in on you properly. Go stay at your old place for a bit."

Claire had already listed that house for sale.

Exactly what she wanted Nathan, conveniently far away, staying gone as long as possible.

He asked which hospital, said he'd come by in person.

Claire answered quickly. "Wade Enterprises needs you right now, Nathan. Don't worry about me."

"I'll call the second I'm discharged."

She hung up, swallowed down the nausea, and finally let out a long breath.

Wade family's daughter-in-law?Did Claire even care anymore?

The next day, Claire went back to the clinic. She'd brought a sample of the daily injection fluid for Dr. Lawson to test.

Result: plain saline. Nothing more.

She let out a breath of relief. So Amy hadn't lied.

Amy had confessed honestly it was just saline, meant purely to make Claire suffer through the discomfort of daily needles. Nathan and Vanessa's idea.

Dr. Lawson still looked baffled. "If it's just saline, what was even the point?”