Chapter 2 - Six Months Earlier
Six months earlier, I had believed my marriage was tired but salvageable.
Daniel had become distant.
He worked late.
He guarded his phone.
He stopped looking at me when we spoke.
I blamed stress.
Hartwell Medical Systems was preparing for the largest acquisition in the company’s history.
My father had founded Hartwell thirty-two years earlier.
When he died, he left me fifty-eight percent of the company.
Daniel owned nothing.
But I trusted him enough to make him chief executive officer.
That decision nearly destroyed everything my father had built.
The first warning came from my pharmacist.
“Mrs. Hart, did your doctor increase your prescription?”
“No.”
“Our system shows someone requested a stronger dosage last week.”
I stared at the bottle in my hand.
The pills looked different.
Daniel had been bringing me a glass of water every night.
He called it love.
I called my doctor from the parking lot.
She had approved no change.
Someone had forged the authorization.
That same afternoon, Sloane arrived at my house with soup and sympathy.
“You look exhausted,” she said.
“I think Daniel is worried about you.”
I watched her move through my kitchen as though she already lived there.
She knew where we kept the bowls.
She knew Daniel preferred the blue coffee mug.
She knew the security code to our wine cellar.
I had given her all that information.
She was my best friend.
I never imagined she was rehearsing to replace me.
That night, I pretended to take the medication Daniel handed me.
I hid the pill beneath my tongue.
After he left the bedroom, I spat it into a tissue.
Then I followed him downstairs.
He entered his study and closed the door.
Sloane was waiting inside.
Through the narrow opening, I watched my husband pull my best friend into his arms.
Their kiss was not hesitant.
It was familiar.
“You said she would sign this week,” Sloane whispered.
“She will,” Daniel replied.
“She can barely remember what day it is.”
My hands went cold.
They were not only having an affair.
They were drugging me.
And they were planning to steal my company.
I wanted to burst through the door.
I wanted to throw something.
I wanted to destroy them immediately.
Instead, I silently returned upstairs.
I lay in bed beside Daniel when he came back.
I let him wrap his arm around me.
I even forced myself to breathe normally.
May you like
Because rage would give me one dramatic night.
Patience could give me everything.
