All Chapters of The wife he betrayed bought his empire : Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Grace's POV I set the table for two at six o'clock. I brought out the good plates from our wedding and placed them carefully on the table. I lit two white candles and moved them until they stood at the same height. I even wore the blue dress Victor once told me he loved. I wanted tonight to be special. Perhaps that was foolish of me. But after nine years of marriage, I still wanted my husband to look at me the way he used to. The roast was in the oven. The kitchen smelled of rosemary and butter. It was his favorite meal, and I had been cooking since noon. My feet hurt. I did not mind. Beside his plate I placed a small gift box. Inside was a frame, and inside the frame was the first check from Midwest Grocers. Nine years ago, Victor was in bed with a fever on the morning of the biggest meeting of his life. I went in his place. My hands shook so badly that I hid them under the table. But I won that client, and it saved his company. That night he kissed my hands and said, "I coul

The magazine came on Monday morning, wrapped in plastic and addressed to Victor. I was the one who brought in the mail. I always was. I almost put it on his desk without looking. Then I saw his face on the cover, and the gold letters beneath it. THE SELF-MADE MAN WHO MOVED A CITY. I sat down at the kitchen table and opened it. The photographer had made him look like a king. Victor stood in front of a line of trucks, arms crossed, chin lifted. The story ran for six pages. I read every word. Victor Holloway built Holloway Freight Systems from nothing but a borrowed laptop and an iron will, it said. "I had one idea," Holloway says. "Every empty truck is a promise broken." I stopped reading. I read that sentence again. Then I put my hand over my mouth. I knew that sentence. I had written it at two in the morning, nine years ago, at a scratched kitchen table with one short leg. I remembered the exact pen. I remembered the tea going cold beside my elbow. The article went on. It t

I spent two hours getting ready for the. I had not done that in a long time, but my hands still remembered how. The curling iron. The pins. A little pink on my cheeks. In the back of my closet hung a dress I had never worn. It was dark green, simple and elegant. I had bought it last week with the last of my own savings, the small envelope of money I kept in my drawer. I stood in front of the mirror and almost did not recognize the woman looking back. She looked tall. She looked calm. She looked like someone who belonged in a room full of important people. For one small moment, I let myself hope. Tonight, he will see me, I thought. Tonight, he will remember. Victor was waiting in the hall, checking his watch. He looked up when I came down the stairs. I held my breath. "You are late," he said. That was all. He opened the front door and walked out ahead of me. In the car, he talked on the phone the whole way. When he finally hung up, he gave me a quick glance, the kind you give