Chapter 1 - THE BRUISES SHE HID
The doctor left the consultation room, but I remained frozen in my chair.
Severe malnutrition.
Anemia.
Physical exhaustion.
Signs of distress in our unborn son.
Those words kept repeating in my head.
Clara was only thirty feet away, asleep beneath warm blankets while monitors tracked every heartbeat.
I walked into her room and sat beside the bed.
Her face looked smaller than I remembered.
That realization hurt more than I expected.
For weeks, I had noticed she was losing weight.
I had asked if she was eating.
Every time, she smiled and told me pregnancy had ruined her appetite.
I believed her.
Now I understood that smile had been hiding something.
I reached for her hand.
She woke slowly.
“Sebastian?”
“I’m here.”
Her eyes immediately searched my face.
“What did the doctor say?”
I tried to control my voice.
“He said you haven’t been eating enough.”
Clara looked away.
“How long?”
Silence.
“Clara.”
Her lower lip trembled.
“I don’t know.”
“How long has my mother been treating you like that?”
She closed her eyes.
“Please don’t make me answer right now.”
I felt anger rising again.
Not at her.
At myself.
I had spent years believing I could read a contract better than anyone in the room.
Yet I had failed to read my own wife.
“I need to know.”
Clara slowly pulled her hand away.
“Three months.”
I stopped breathing.
“Three months?”
“It started small.”
“What does that mean?”
“She would make comments when you traveled.”
“What kind of comments?”
“That I was lazy.”
“That I married you for money.”
“That I wasn’t good enough to raise a Vance child.”
I stared at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Clara’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because every time I tried, she already had an explanation ready.”
I frowned.
“What explanation?”
“She said you were exhausted from work.”
“She said I was becoming emotional because of the pregnancy.”
“She said if I burdened you, I could cause your company problems.”
Clara swallowed.
“And then she started saying you already regretted marrying me.”
“That is a lie.”
“I know that now.”
My chest tightened.
“Now?”
Clara looked at the ceiling.
“She showed me messages.”
“What messages?”
“From your phone.”
I stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
“What did they say?”
“That you wished I had never gotten pregnant.”
“That you were only staying because of the baby.”
“That once our son was born, you wanted a divorce.”
I stared at her.
“I never sent anything like that.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because yesterday I finally looked at the number carefully.”
She reached toward the bedside drawer.
Inside was her phone.
She opened a series of screenshots.
The messages appeared under my name.
But the number was not mine.
It differed by one digit.
Someone had created an imitation contact.
My mother had not simply insulted Clara.
She had spent months making my wife believe I secretly hated her.
Clara whispered, “There’s more.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“She made me sign papers.”
My skin turned cold.
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“She told me they were household insurance documents.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Where are they?”
“I think she kept them.”
I took out my phone.
My first call was to Daniel Mercer, my attorney.
My second was to my security director, Marcus Reed.
“Lock down the house.”
Marcus immediately understood from my tone that this was not a normal request.
“Everyone?”
“Everyone.”
“Mrs. Eleanor Vance too?”
“Especially her.”
Clara grabbed my wrist.
“Sebastian.”
I looked down.
Fear filled her eyes.
Not fear of my mother.
Fear for me.
“Please be careful.”
I bent down and kissed her forehead.
“I should have been careful months ago.”
Then my phone rang.
Marcus.
“That was fast.”
His voice sounded different.
“Sir, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“Your mother isn’t at the house.”
“Find her.”
“We’re trying.”
A pause followed.
Then Marcus said something that turned my anger into something colder.
“We found a hidden camera in the dining room.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“Good.”
“No, sir.”
“What do you mean?”
“It wasn’t installed by us.”
I stared through the hospital window.
May you like
Marcus lowered his voice.
“And whoever installed it has been recording your wife for months.”
