Chapter 3

“Who would’ve thought Mrs. Harding was such a vicious woman...”

Every mocking word reached my ears.

I sucked in a sharp breath against the pain and opened my mouth to call for Julian.

Before I could make a sound, Vanessa appeared at the top of the stairs.

Wearing a revealing silk slip, she descended slowly.

“Martha Dawson, are the condoms still where we always keep them?”

Vanessa spoke to Martha as naturally as if she were the mistress of the house.

Then she turned and saw me trapped beside the table.

A mocking smile curved her lips.

“Elena, you look like a bloated toad with that belly.”

“I honestly don’t understand what Julian ever saw in you.”

Jealousy flashed in her eyes as she walked toward me.

She bent down and studied my miserable condition for a moment.

Then, without warning, she ripped the silver pendant from my neck.

“Elena, I’m only trying to help you.”

“You married Julian, yet you’re still wearing this cheap silver necklace?”

“I’ll do you a favor and throw it away.”

With a contemptuous laugh, she hurled the pendant into the villa’s swimming pool.

My eyes trembled as I watched the emergency necklace my brother had given me disappear beneath the water.

His warning suddenly echoed in my mind.

“Elena, this pendant contains the Valenti Family’s highest-level security system.”

“If it’s ever damaged, it will trigger the Family’s most urgent emergency alert. Protect it carefully.”

A brief alarm sounded from the pool.

Then the pendant went completely silent.

My hands were still glued to the table.

The wounds across my back had gone from burning pain to a swollen, terrifying numbness.

“Vanessa, do you have any idea what that pendant was?”

“My brother gave it to me—”

“I don’t care what it was!”

“Stay here and think about what you’ve done.”

“I’m going upstairs to sleep with Mia.”

Her smile turned suggestive.

“After all, she keeps begging for Mommy and Daddy to sleep with her...”

Right in front of me, Vanessa dropped a red pill into the glass Julian always used for water.

Then she turned and walked upstairs.

My back finally gave out.

My knees buckled, forcing me to the floor while my glued hands remained stretched against the table.

My phone tumbled from my bag.

I lowered my head and checked the time.

Twenty minutes had passed since the last call.

I struggled to stay conscious, but my condition was worsening by the second.

Weakly, I tried to activate my phone’s voice assistant and call 911.

Martha rushed over and kicked the phone out of reach.

“Oh!”

She covered her mouth with false surprise.

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Harding. I didn’t see it.”

My vision dimmed.

It took several seconds before I could focus again.

Staring toward the bedroom upstairs, I shouted with all the strength I had left.

“Julian!”

“Julian...!”

I called his name again and again.

No one answered.

I forced myself to remain upright.

Then intimate sounds drifted down from upstairs.

My entire body went rigid.

A short distance away, Martha stood holding her phone.

She turned the volume all the way up, forcing me to hear the sounds of Julian and Vanessa together in the bedroom.

Nausea surged through me.

I bent forward and vomited bitter acid.

The sounds continued playing from Martha’s phone.

Their breathless moans repeated in my ears.

I didn’t know how long she forced me to listen.

When I finally heard something else, it was the upstairs bedroom door opening.

Julian rushed downstairs in his pajamas with Mia in his arms.

“Elena, how could you secretly put something Mia is allergic to in the bedroom?”

“You know an allergic reaction could send her into anaphylactic shock. She could die!”

“She’s only five years old. How could you do something so cruel?”

Every furious accusation struck my ears.

I stared at the chest Julian was trying to cover.

His skin was covered in hickeys and scratches.

A violent pain stabbed through my abdomen.

I swallowed the bitter acid still burning in my mouth.