Chapter 4

"Miss Fox, your custom birthday cake has been picked up. Happy birthday! We'd be grateful if you could leave us a good review after you enjoy it. Your encouragement is our greatest motivation."

I opened the Annebeco ordering app on my phone.

The order history showed that fifteen minutes ago, someone had picked up a custom birthday cake at the store.

Only I knew the PIN on that prepaid card.

Only Fred knew it.

I called the store and confirmed that the person who placed the order and picked up the cake was Fred.

And that today was Miss Molly Pruitt's twenty-third birthday.

I couldn't stop laughing.

It seemed Fred was truly confident.

He thought the net he'd woven had me covered nicely.

I stood, opened my navigation app, and got ready to pay a visit to my husband's other home.

Before I set out, Nina called.

"Fern, I've got it. There's a problem with this transaction. This Gwyneth Pruitt does exist, but she's already dead. Do you know who she is?"

I said nothing, and Nina went on. "She's a distant cousin of Fred's."

"The money for this came out of Fred's pocket, and in the end it went right back into his account. He's playing you, Fern."

Her voice was full of fury.

"I looked into the accounts under Fred's name and yours. He's been transferring money to an account ending in 9864."

My chest tightened. "Since when?"

"The earliest transfer was two years ago. The account belongs to Molly Pruitt."

"Nina, can you pull the full transaction records? And Molly Pruitt's identity."

She spoke in a rush. "I already did. Over two years he transferred four hundred seventy-three thousand nine hundred twenty-six dollars total. This Molly Pruitt used to work as a receptionist at Fred's company, but she quit two years ago."

"Do you know, Fern, where she's living now?"

"11 Cloud Ridge Lane, right?"

Nina was stunned. "Fern, how do you know that?"

I said flatly, "Fred cheated on me. He conned me out of that house just to give this woman a home."

Nina was furious, cursing Fred over and over, calling him no kind of man.

"Nina, I need your help getting a divorce. I've sent you all the evidence I have. Take a look for me."

She said indignantly, "No problem. I'll make sure that piece-of-trash cheater walks away with nothing."

I said coldly, "That's nowhere near enough. I want him to walk away with nothing and end up ruined."

"But before that, I have something more important to do. Tonight I have a birthday party to attend."

Nina thought the rage had scrambled my brain.

"Fern, at a time like this? That trash has bled you dry, and you're still in the mood to go to a birthday party?"

I was putting on lipstick in front of the mirror.

"Of course. It's Molly Pruitt's birthday party, and my husband and my mother-in-law are both there. How could I miss it?"

She was quiet for a moment. "Wow. So your mother-in-law knew all along. That old witch. You wiped her backside when she was sick, damn it. Let her wait. I won't let her off either."

I hung up and picked up my bag.

Before I walked out, I glanced at the huge wedding portrait hanging in the living room.

Fred down on one knee before me, promising to take care of me for the rest of my life.

In the family photo in the lower left corner, he and I stood on either side of his mother.

His mother was grinning ear to ear, saying again and again that she'd treat me like her own daughter.

I never imagined that in less than three years of marriage,

the husband who promised me forever and the mother-in-law who promised to treat me like her own flesh and blood

had both been busy deceiving me.

Ding. My phone buzzed.

It was a notification from Molly Pruitt's account.

She'd started a livestream to mark her birthday.

The cover image was the custom cake Fred had bought her with my card.

Watching her show off her romance for the camera,

with his mother bustling around in the background and Fred cooing at the child the whole time,

I curled the corner of my mouth into a smile.

Since the stage was set,

it was time for me to make my entrance.