Chapter 2

After settling Nola in, Whitney returned home in the early hours of the morning.

She sat motionless on the couch, her phone still open to her conversation with Lennox.

"There's a bit of trouble at the office. Go to bed early and don't wait up for me."

The message was followed by a kissy-face sticker.

Whitney let out a bitter laugh.

When she was dating Lennox, she was in her second year of graduate school, while he had already taken over the family business and become the youngest head of a company in their social circle.

Everyone said she was punching above her weight, and even she often felt insecure about their relationship.

But Lennox seemed determined to let the whole world know just how much he loved her.

For her birthday, he rented out the entire Blue Hour Restaurant and arranged for her favorite band to perform live.

When she casually mentioned craving the honey cake from Crestwood's long-established bakery, he sent someone to wait in line for two hours to buy one and deliver it to her university.

When she fell ill and was hospitalized, he turned down a multimillion-dollar project and stayed by her side in the hospital for three whole days.

After they married, Lennox told her that work was too exhausting and urged her to stay home and enjoy life as a full-time housewife.

Whitney worried that people would dismiss her as nothing more than a pretty face with no real abilities.

Lennox held her hand and told her that she was his greatest source of strength as he worked hard to build his career.

Those words made her willingly give up her dreams and become financially dependent on him.

It was barely dawn when Lennox finally returned.

Seeing Whitney sitting on the couch, he froze for a moment before walking over and pulling her into his arms.

"I've been working all night. I'm exhausted."

Whitney caught the overpowering scent of perfume on his neck, and her stomach churned.

"Were you busy working, or busy keeping Winona company?"

She couldn't hold the question back any longer.

Lennox slowly pulled away from her, his eyes suddenly clear.

"So you know."

It wasn't a question.

He let out a long sigh of relief. "Maybe it's for the best. At least Nona won't have to keep worrying about being exposed."

At that moment, his concern wasn't whether his wife would be heartbroken to learn he'd been cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend. It was that the other woman could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Whitney clutched the pregnancy test results in her hand. "Aren't you afraid I'll expose you right now?"

"You won't."

Lennox loosened his tie. "You don't have a job or an income. If you leave me, how are you going to support yourself and your mother, who's been bedridden for years?"

She glared at him, remembering how he'd once coaxed her into becoming a full-time housewife. Her whole body trembled.

She thought of her mother, Victoria Whitmore, who needed imported medication every day, and the hefty monthly cost of her care.

All the strength drained from her in an instant.

Lennox drew her back into his arms, his voice gentle.

"I'm not trying to change anything. To the outside world, you'll still be Mrs. Graham. But Nona... I can't just abandon her."

Whitney crumpled the pregnancy test results into a ball and tossed it into the trash.

Along with the last shred of hope she had left.

"What was that?"

Lennox bent down to pick up the crumpled paper. Just as he was about to unfold it, his phone rang.

Whitney glanced at the screen. The caller ID read Nona.

It was almost laughable. Lennox had saved her contact under her full name.

He answered the call, and Winona's sobs came through the other end.

"Lennox, there are reporters all around the hotel..."

Lennox's expression darkened instantly.

He hung up and whipped around to glare at Whitney. "Did you call the reporters?"

Whitney froze.

"I didn't—"

Before she could finish speaking, he dragged her bodily into the back seat of the car.

The car sped recklessly down the road, jolting her so violently that it felt as though her insides had been shaken out of place.

Instinctively, she clutched her lower abdomen protectively.

She remembered what Nola had told her. She had been supposed to push open the hotel room door the night before and expose Lennox and Winona on the spot.

She had been stopped, yet it had still happened.

She hadn't called the reporters. So who had?