Chapter 4: Who Told Your Dog to Misbehave?

A flash of irritation crossed Grant's face. "Nora, don't make this harder than it needs to be. This is complicated, and I have to go."

She couldn't see his expression, but she didn't need to. She could hear it plainly enough.

For once, Nora didn't back down the way she always had. "The company employs hundreds of people. Are they all just sitting there doing nothing? Does everything have to go through you personally?"

Grant yanked his hand free, jaw tight. "Nora. Don't be unreasonable about this. It's a genuine emergency. And don't use the pregnancy as leverage."

He was rattled. She could hear that too.

In their rush, neither of them had managed to keep the mask fully in place.

She heard the engine start downstairs a moment later, and something in her chest cracked clean down the middle.

She'd known exactly why he'd married her. She'd known, for longer than she wanted to admit, that he didn't love her. And it still hurt like this.

About ten minutes later, Nora made a decision she couldn't take back. She picked up her phone.

"Hello, Meridian General? I'd like to ask about the process for terminating a pregnancy."

...

When the call ended, her face had gone cold and still.

If this is going to end, it should end clean. That's the kindest thing I can do for this child.

As expected, Grant didn't come home that night.

---

Around nine the next morning, Grant's chief assistant, Derek Lang, came to see her.

Derek held out a velvet box. "Ma'am, a gift from Mr. Pierce. South Sea pearls."

Nora took it, running her fingers over each smooth, heavy pearl. Expensive, the kind of expensive that spoke for itself.

She set it aside without ceremony. "Mm."

Derek blinked, caught off guard.

She usually lit up over these deliveries. Genuinely, unmistakably happy.

This was the first time he'd ever seen her react with nothing at all.

"Ma'am, are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine," she said, flat and even.

He picked this one out himself, didn't he. Just like all the others.

Thinking back, in three years of marriage, she couldn't recall a single gift Grant had actually handed her himself. It was always Derek. Or the driver. Or a courier at the front door.

Never once from his own hands.

Doesn't matter. I gave up on him a long time ago. And I won't be here much longer anyway.

"Ma'am," Derek added, "Mr. Pierce wanted to remind you about the Ashford family dinner tonight. He'll come by to bring you along."

Right. The monthly Ashford family dinner. Both she and Vivian were expected.

In three years, no matter how packed his schedule got, Grant had never once missed one of those dinners, showing up more faithfully than Nora, the family's own adopted daughter, ever managed to.

She used to joke that strangers would mistake him for an actual Ashford son. Looking back now, it had simply been the easiest excuse in the world to spend an evening near Vivian.

Nora had already made up her mind to leave, and she hadn't planned on tolerating another one of these dinners. But there was one person in that house she couldn't walk away from without saying goodbye, her grandmother.

The Ashfords had never been kind to her. Her grandmother was the single exception.

I'll bring her medication tonight. Make sure she doesn't miss a dose while I'm gone.

"Good," Nora said.

"I'll take my leave, then, ma'am." Derek left.

---

That evening, the housekeeper laid out options.

“Ma’am, would the emerald silk dress suit you tonight?”

Nora paused. “Anything but that dress.”

Mrs. Doyle hesitated, clearly confused.

“Is that a problem?” Nora asked.

"No, not at all, ma'am, you look lovely in anything. I'll find you something else."

Nora said nothing further and sat down to wait.

Ping.

A voice message came through. She played it: Wife, take a cab over, I'm running late.

Her grip on the phone tightened.

Eventually, she typed back: Understood.

Once she was dressed, the car pulled up outside.

As Mrs. Doyle walked her out, she murmured, half to herself, "Ma'am, are you sure about going alone? And with Mr. Pierce's condition being what it is, it isn't really safe for him to be out and about without you either"

She caught herself too late, seeing how pale Nora's face had gone, and clamped her mouth shut.

---

Nora arrived at the Ashford estate at six. The sky had gone the color of a fading bruise, red and gold, a sunset she would never get to see.

She'd barely stepped out of the car when a familiar voice reached her. "Nora! What a coincidence, you just got here too."

She turned toward the sound. Two sets of footsteps.

Vivian wasn't alone.

As Vivian drew closer, Nora placed the second voice easily enough.

Vivian looped an arm through hers, all warmth and apology. "I had too much to drink last night and my stomach was a mess, so Grant came to get me. We meant to swing by for you too, but traffic was awful, we didn't want to make you wait around. You're not upset, are you, Nora?"

Before Nora could answer, Grant cut in smoothly. "Nora's not petty. She won't make a thing of it. It's just a car ride, a cab would've done the same job."

How convenient.

I'm blind, so apparently I don't need picking up. But Vivian, perfectly capable of driving herself, needed a personal escort.

Nora's fingers tightened around the strap of her bag. She let out a short, quiet laugh, shrugged Vivian's hand off her arm, and walked past them both, cane tapping steadily ahead of her.

Behind her, Vivian's voice took on a wounded edge. "Grant, she's still mad at me. After all these years, she still can't let anything go."

Grant's brow furrowed, clearly unimpressed with Nora's behavior. "Don't mind her."

---

Nora reached the living room first.

A voice greeted her before she'd even crossed the threshold, sharp with disappointment. "Oh. It's you. I thought it was Vivian."

The woman brushed past her, craning to see past her shoulder, and the moment she spotted the real target of her attention, her whole face transformed. "Vivian! Sweetheart, I've missed you so much, come here, let me look at you!"

Nora caught herself after stumbling a step, a bitter smile tugging at her mouth.

In this house, she'd always been the least wanted person in the room. Everyone except her grandmother would have been glad to never see her again.

When Vivian was first found and brought into the family, they'd nearly thrown Nora out entirely. Only her grandmother had stood in the way.

So for years, her grandmother had been the only reason she ever bothered coming back at all.

A moment later, footsteps thundered down the staircase. Elliot breezed past her without slowing, tossing over his shoulder, "Could you not block the whole hallway? You're an eyesore standing there."

Then, brightening instantly, he threw his arms around Vivian. "Sis! Finally! Mom's been talking about you nonstop since this morning, you have no idea how exhausting it's been."

Vivian was the sun the entire Ashford household orbited. She thrived on it, savored every second of being adored, and it fed something hungry and superior in her.

Which was exactly why Vivian's favorite pastime, for as long as Nora could remember, was taking things away from her. Anything Nora loved, Vivian wanted for herself, simply because Nora had loved it first.

There'd been a picture book once, a birthday gift from their grandmother. Vivian had wanted it, grabbed for it, and in the scuffle it tore and Vivian had taken a small fall in the process.

For that, Nora had spent three days and three nights locked in a dark room. Nobody came looking until she'd already been unconscious for hours.

Then there was the dog. Eight years ago, not long after Vivian arrived, Nora had raised a puppy from birth, the two of them inseparable. Vivian had tried to grab it once and gotten bitten for her trouble.

The next morning, the dog was found hanging from a tree branch in the yard.

Vivian had smiled at her, a small, sweet, poisonous smile, and said, "Something that disobedient deserved what it got. You stole eighteen years of my life, Nora, so I'm going to take the rest of yours. Piece by piece. Anything you love, I'll have it."

It had always gone like that. The Ashfords always took Vivian's side, no questions asked, and the punishment always landed on Nora, no trial, no defense, just the verdict already decided.

Once, it had nearly cost her the use of her hand.

And in the end, Vivian had taken her fiancé. Then her eyes.

And now, it seems, she's decided my husband is next on the list too.