Chapter 5

"Relax. Harold's a straight arrow. Cracking cases is the only thing he's good at. All the little twists between women go right over his head.

Right now he just thinks I'm a poor, devoted wife, and you're a loyal employee."

There was a lofty arrogance in Teresa's voice.

"Good... but I'm still a little worried, sis.

That secret will Julian left at the company. If we can't find it, then even after we get the scattered shares, if he suddenly kicks off one day, the assets will still..."

"Shut up!" Teresa's voice dropped hard, cutting Nora off.

The living room went silent in an instant, nothing left but the soft trickle of wine into a glass.

My heart clenched.

A secret will? They even knew about the backup will I'd locked away in the bank safe deposit box?

That was the highest secret I had, known only to my private attorney.

"He wouldn't let where that will is slip out even talking in his sleep."

Teresa lowered her voice, a cold edge threading through it.

"But it doesn't matter. I've already found the way to pry his mouth open. Tonight, I'll make him talk for good."

Pry my mouth open? What were they planning to do?

The sheer sense of danger made it impossible to keep lying still in that bed. I had to know exactly what vicious method they were about to use on me.

Slowly, with extreme care, I opened my eyes. The room was pitch black, nothing but that strip of light under the door, like a blade hanging in the dark.

I drew in a breath and started to move my body.

First I pressed my right hand, the one with feeling back in it, into the mattress and pushed my upper body up an inch at a time.

An action that normally took no thought at all now drained every ounce of strength I had.

Sweat broke from my forehead at once, sliding into my eyes, stinging beyond belief.

Next I edged my right leg to the side of the bed and let it hang down.

My left leg was like a heavy log. I could only move it with my hands.

Every inch I shifted, the springs inside the Hästens mattress let out a faint creak.

In that dead-silent room the sound was magnified without limit, like a bell tolling for me.

Finally my feet touched the carpet.

I tried to stand, but the muscles in both legs, unused for days, shook violently. My knees buckled, and I pitched forward with no control.

Thud.

I threw both hands out against the floor with everything I had, keeping my chin from cracking down and making a huge noise, but my heavy body still hit the carpet with a dull thump.

I held my breath, staring hard at the light coming through the gap under the door.

The talking in the living room paused for a second.

"What was that?" Nora asked, sharp with suspicion.

My heart shot into my throat, every hair on my body standing on end.

If they pushed open the door now and saw me crawling on the floor, it would all be over.

"Probably that Alaskan the Lees next door keep, banging into the wall again. Leave it."

Teresa's voice was lazy, as if she hadn't given it a thought.

I let out a long, foul breath, as though I'd just walked back from the gates of death.

I couldn't stand up. Too dangerous.

I could only crawl, like a dog with a broken spine, hands and knees together, edging toward the bedroom door.

The expensive Persian carpet had become a bog dragging at me now, scraping my palms and knees, burning.

But I couldn't spare any thought for that. My eyes were fixed on that lit gap under the door. That was the way out to the truth.

Two meters... one meter... half a meter...

At last I reached the door and pressed my ear tight against the cold solid wood.

The voices outside came clear.

"Sis, you said just now you'd found the way to pry his mouth open. What is it?"

Nora's curiosity had clearly been stretched to its limit.

Teresa gave a soft laugh, and in it was a kind of madness and delight held back for years.

"Do you really think these eight years I spent as a full-time wife were for nothing? Do you really think that just because I didn't go to the company, I didn't know about the filthy things he did behind my back?

Nora, do you honestly think that a fresh college graduate like you could have caught his attention so easily, if I hadn't quietly arranged it?"

What?

My eyes flew wide, and it was as though a thunderclap went off inside my skull, leaving me reeling.

Nora... was arranged by Teresa? From the very beginning, it had all been a set trap?

"Sis, don't put it so ugly."

Nora pouted the words out.

"We're the best of partners. But really, what are you going to use to threaten him into handing over the will's password?"

Teresa seemed to stand up, the sound of her heels pacing back and forth across the living room.

"Simple."

Her voice suddenly dropped very low, low enough to seem to carry the smell of blood.

"Do you remember, three years ago, when he drove that foreman to his death at the abandoned building project in the southern suburbs?"

My pupils shrank to their smallest, and in that moment my breathing stopped completely.

The abandoned building project in the southern suburbs... the foreman...

That was the biggest secret of my whole life.

How could she possibly know?

"The surveillance footage of that, along with the ledgers of the bribes he paid, I kept backups of all of it."

Teresa said it with a cold laugh, the words dropping me into an abyss.

"All I have to do is hand this over to Harold, and forget his company, his life, the rest of it will be spent behind bars.

Guess. To save his own skin, won't he cough up the password nice and obedient?"

My hands clawed into the carpet, nails nearly bending back.

This poisonous woman. She didn't just want my money. She wanted my life too.

"Brilliant! Sis, you're honestly my idol!"

Nora clapped her hands, thrilled.

"So should we go in and force it out of him right now?"

"No hurry."

Teresa's footsteps suddenly stopped, and her voice turned a little strange.

"Don't you think his breathing tonight... sounds a little off?"

My whole body seized, my heart nearly bursting in my chest.

Tap, tap...

The sound of her heels, one step at a time, unhurried, was coming toward the bedroom door.

Every step felt like it was pressing down on the nerves behind my eyes.

I wanted to back away, to crawl back onto the bed, but the sheer terror had frozen my limbs solid, unable to move at all.

Light and shadow shifted under the door, and a pair of black, red-soled heels stopped on the other side.

The handle gave a tooth-grating click as it slowly pressed down.

And in the instant the door was about to swing open—

"Beep beep beep—"

Inside the drawer of my nightstand, the phone locked away in there suddenly let out a shrill, jarring ring.