I almost laughed.
Instead, my gaze drifted toward Vanessa, who had followed him at a cautious distance.
Not toward her face.
Toward the small silver-edged corporate travel card protruding from the clutch she held against her hip.
I recognized it immediately.
I had approved the original company card design years earlier.
So that was how he had paid for paradise.
I lifted my eyes.
“Are you going to introduce us properly, Ethan?”
Vanessa looked away.
Ethan stepped closer.
“Can we discuss this somewhere private?”
“We already have a private meeting scheduled.”
His gaze moved toward Declan.
“With him?”
Declan remained silent.
Ethan turned back to me.
“Grace, you have no idea what you’re interfering with.”
For a moment, I saw the husband I had known.
The man who could make a warning sound like concern.
The man who always expected me to retreat.
But there was another man inside that familiar face now.
Someone frightened.
Not of losing me.
Of losing control.
The elevator doors opened.
Ethan glanced at the folder.
“What’s that?”
I held it tighter.
“Something you should recognize.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Grace…”
“Tell me something first.”
“Not here.”
“Who signed my name?”
He went completely still.
I watched understanding spread across his face.
And suddenly I knew.
The affair had surprised him.
My arrival had terrified him.
But the black folder had made him realize that the real danger wasn’t the wife he had betrayed.
It was the business partner he had forgotten still owned part of his empire.
“Grace,” he whispered, “please tell me you haven’t shown those documents to Pierce.”
I didn’t answer.
Because for the first time in our marriage, I wanted Ethan to experience what it felt like not knowing what would happen next.
