Chapter 4

Dudley switched off the light at once and turned to me.

"Miss Gray, your suspicions were right. Every one of these is semen fluorescing under the light."

Seeing those wide patches glow, I couldn't hold back my rage at Neil any longer.

Dudley, still holding the equipment, went on.

"Miss Gray, would you like me to check anywhere else?"

I shook my head and said, my face blank,

"No need. Just give me the final results."

Once I'd handed the whole thing over to Dudley, I turned and walked out of the villa Neil had bought specially for me, to celebrate our marriage.

It had cost over five million at the time, and it was still registered under my name.

But the thought of Neil's stains scattered all over that house made me sick.

After leaving the villa, I drove straight back to my own place.

As the eldest daughter of the Gray Group, I had five or six houses like it.

Cleaners came through them every day, so none of them were ever run-down or unlivable.

I lay on the bed, my head a mess of thoughts, until Dudley sent over the login for the villa's upgraded surveillance system.

I hadn't meant to look, but the pull of curiosity was too strong, and before I knew it I'd opened the feed.

Three in the afternoon. The villa's door swung open.

Paulette walked in with her little grandson.

Her expression was easy, not a trace of the awkwardness from our falling-out that morning, as natural as if she were coming home to her own house.

Coming in with her, both hands loaded down with shopping bags she could barely carry.

"See, I told you she wasn't here. What are you afraid of? Neil's obviously already reamed her out, and she knows she's in the wrong, so she doesn't dare come back."

Paulette cast a quick glance around, saw no one home, and struck the pose of a woman who'd won.

Grace cut her off.

"All right, Mom, let's talk about that vase already. I asked Neil this afternoon. It really is worth two million."

But Paulette rolled her eyes and let out something that stunned me.

"What are you afraid of? I gave him Toby. I gave the James family their heir. What's two million next to that?"