Chapter 1 - The Woman Wearing My Robe
“Don’t open that gate, Mia. Your husband told her you wouldn’t be home until Friday.”
My neighbor’s hand clamped around my wrist before I could reach the keypad.
Behind the iron bars, a woman stepped onto my balcony wearing the silk robe I had bought on my honeymoon.
Then Leo walked up behind her and kissed her neck.
My suitcase tipped over.
The wheels struck the pavement with a hard plastic crack.
Luz pulled me into the narrow passage between our properties.
“Quiet.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Two hours earlier, my husband had called me in Paris.
I miss you, baby.
Now his hand was inside the pocket of my robe, and the woman wearing it was laughing.
“I told you she worries too much,” she said.
I knew that voice.
Claire.
My best friend.
My company’s chief brand officer.
The woman who had helped zip me into my wedding dress.
I moved toward the gate again.
Luz stepped in front of me.
“Before you go in, there’s something else.”
“Move.”
“Mia, listen.”
Her voice cracked.
That stopped me.
Luz was a retired teacher who could silence a room with one look.
Tonight, she was shaking.
“They’ve been carrying boxes out of your house.”
“What boxes?”
“From your office. Your husband said you were moving.”
I stared at her.
“I’m not moving.”
“I know.”
Upstairs, Claire rested her elbows on the balcony.
“After tomorrow,” she said, “we won’t have to sneak around anymore.”
Leo kissed her shoulder.
“One signature. That’s all.”
My skin went cold.
Tomorrow was the board meeting for my company’s biggest expansion.
Leo had begged me to attend remotely.
You need rest after Paris, he’d said.
Let me handle things here.
I took out my phone and opened the security app.
ACCESS DENIED.
I tried again.
Same message.
“He changed it yesterday,” Luz whispered.
“You knew?”
“I called you.”
Three missed calls.
Buried beneath travel notifications and messages I had never opened.
Shame struck harder than the betrayal.
I had almost walked into that house smiling.
Luz reached into her cardigan pocket.
She handed me a folded cream envelope.
“Your housekeeper gave me this before they fired her.”
My name was written across the front in Rosa’s careful handwriting.
Inside was a photograph.
My husband stood at my desk beside Claire.
Between them lay a document bearing my signature.
Across the top were the words AUTHORIZATION TO TRANSFER CONTROLLING INTEREST.
I had never signed it.
Then my phone lit up.
A message from Leo.
May you like
Did you land safely, baby?
From the balcony, I watched him press send.
