My Husband And His Wife

Chapter Four

The dining room was a masterpiece of deception. I had spent the afternoon supervising Martha as she polished the silver until it gleamed like a surgeon’s blade. The centerpieces were white lilies, flowers for a funeral, though Larry and Anna wouldn’t realize that.

I had invited Anna over for a “healing dinner” to help her recover from her “cold”.

I stood in front of the mirror in the hallway, adjusting my dress. I choose a deep, midnight blue-the color of a bruise. Around my wrist, the ruby bracelet Larry gave me sat like a drop of blood.

“You look stunning, Babe”, Larry’s voice drifted from behind me. He walked up and wrapped his arms around my waist, his chin resting on my shoulder.

In the reflection, we looked like the perfect power couple. Inside, I was screaming. Every cell in my body wanted to recoil from his touch, but I forced myself to lean back into him.

I didn’t look back as I climbed the stairs. My heart was a frantic drum against my ribs, but my face remained a mask of cool indifference. Each step felt like a lifetime, yet I was careful to maintain the measured pace of someone with nothing to hide. Beneath my calm exterior, a twitch began in the corner of my left eye, a small betrayal of the strain I was under, threatening to uphold my facade. I could feel Larry’s eyes on my back, heavy with a mix of confusion and burgeoning fear. He knew something had shifted, but he was too arrogant to believe I’d actually caught him.

Once inside the guest room, I turned the lock. The click sounded like a gunshot in the silent house.

I leaned my forehead against the cool wood of the door, finally letting my breath out in a jagged sob I’d been holding since the first course of the meal. My phone buzzed in my pocket-sharp, insistent vibration.

It was from Mr. Sterling.

“Mrs. Vance, I found a second layer. You aren’t the only one being robbed. Anna has been secretly moving the money Larry believes he is stealing for their future into a private account in the Cayman Islands, a location known for offshore accounts and high-profile financial seizures. She plans to disappear with the boy as soon as the Shiny Holdings merger is finalized. Larry thinks he’s outsmarting you, but Anna is outsmarting him.

A hysterical laugh bubbled up in my throat. It was a circle of vipers, each biting the tail of the one in front.

I looked at the wedding photo on the nightstand-Larry and I, laughing under the canopy of white roses. I looked at the man I thought I knew, then at the phone screen.

They weren’t just villains, they were amateurs. They were so blinded by their greed for my father’s empire that they had started to turn on each other.

“Fine”, I whispered to the empty room, my eyes hardening. “If you want to play a game of shadows, let’s see who survives the dark.

I dialed Mr. Sterling’s number, and he picked up immediately. “Mr. Sterling”, I whispered into the dark room, the glow of my phone the only light against the shadows. “I need more than photos. I want wiretaps. I want to hear every secret they whisper when they think I’m not listening. And I want trackers on their cars. I need to know exactly where they go and who they meet”.

“That’s a bold move, Mrs. Vance”, Sterling replied, his voice a low, gravelly hum. “It takes time to set that up without leaving a trail. I’ll have my men do that by tomorrow. Just be careful so they don’t find out”.

“They won’t”, I promised. I hung up, the weight of the phone feeling like a weapon in my hand. For the first time since this nightmare began, I felt a sense of control. I let my eyes close, finally drifting into a heavy, dreamless sleep.

“I want everything to be perfect tonight”, I whispered. “After all, Anna is family. And family is everything, isn’t it?”

“Everything”, Larry echoed, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror. Was it imagination, or was there a flicker of suspicion in his gaze? “You’ve been…quiet today. Is everything okay with the car? I noticed you took the SUV instead of the convertible”.

My heart skipped a bit. He noticed.

“Oh, the convertible was making a strange clicking sound”, I said effortlessly, turning in his arms to fix his tie. “I didn’t want to risk a breakdown on the highway, so I called the shop to have them pick it up for a full inspection, including the brakes”.

Larry’s smile didn’t falter, but the muscles in his jaw tightened.

The doorbell rang, saving me from having to maintain the lie any longer.

Anna entered the house, draped in a pashmina, playing the part of the recovering patient to perfection. She even managed a few dainty coughs into a silk handkerchief.

“Nara, darling! You shouldn’t have gone through all this trouble”, she said, reaching out to hug me.

I held her a second longer than usual. I wanted to feel the heartbeat of the woman who had written a note about my death. It was steady. Cold-blooded.

“Nonsense, Anna. We’re family, aren’t we?” I pulled back, smiling brightly. “And look at Leo! He’s grown so much from the last time I saw him”.

The five-year-old boy stood behind her, clutching a tablet. I looked at him-the child I had loved like a nephew. I looked for Larry’s eyes in his, for Anna’s chin. Now that I knew the truth, the resemblance was a slap in the face.

“Hi, Auntie Nara”, Leo chirped.

“Hi, sweetie. I have that dinosaur gift waiting for you in the playroom”.

As the boy ran off, the three of us moved into the dining room. The tension was thick enough to cut with the steak knives.

A Toast To Secrets

As Martha served the first course, a delicate lobster bisque, I let the silence stretch like a taut string, feeling the gaze of my guests on me. I raised my glass of vintage crystal, the clink echoing softly in the room. A candle flickered, casting shadows that danced across the table as if the very air held its breath.

“To family," I started, letting the silence settle for a moment more, "and to secrets that keep us close. To plans we make in the dark, and the light that eventually finds them."

Larry and Anna raised their glasses, their eyes locked on me with expressions caught between curiosity and unease.

Anna’s glass paused halfway to her lips. She gave a small, nervous laugh. “That’s a very…poetic toast, Nara”.

“I’ve been feeling poetic lately”, I replied, taking a slow sip. “In fact, I was looking through some old family archives today. Babe, did you know that Shiny Holdings once owned a massive plot of land in Ohio? Near a small town called Oak haven?”

The color drained from Larry’s face so fast it was almost comical. Oak haven was the town where the orphanage was located.

“I…can’t say I knew that,” Larry said, his voice dropping in octave.

“Small world, isn’t it?” I turned my gaze to Anna.

Larry reached across the table, his hand covering mine. His grip wasn’t loving this time; it was a warning. “Babe, You’re working too hard. Maybe you should take that vacation we talked about, alone, to clear your head”.

“Actually”, I said, pulling my hand away to reach for a piece of bread. “I think I’d rather stay right here. There’s so much happening. Father told me today that there’s a discrepancy in the trust fund paperwork. Someone has been trying to move money without his authorization”.

I watched them exchange panicked glances.

“He’s launching an internal audit tomorrow”, I continued, my tone casual. “he said whoever is behind it is going to end up in prison for twenty years, minimum. Isn’t that crazy? Someone would have been so stupid to try and rob Shiny Holdings”.

Larry took a large gulp of his wine. “Twenty years… that’s a long time”.

“It’s a lifetime”, I agreed. “But don’t worry. We have nothing to hide, right?”

The rest of the dinner was a graveyard of conversation. Larry and Anna barely touched their food. They were terrified. They were realizing that the “Cinderella” they had been grooming was suddenly showing her teeth.

As the night ended and Anna stood at the door to leave, she leaned in to whisper to me. “Are you okay, Nara? You seem… different tonight.”

I leaned in close to her ear, close enough to smell her perfume-the same perfume I had smelled on Larry’s suit weeks ago.”I’m better than okay, Anna”, I whispered back. “Please give Leo a kiss for me. He looks exactly like his father, don’t you think?”

I pulled back and winked at her.

Anna froze. Her eyes went wide with a terror so pure it made my soul sing. She didn’t say another word. She carried Leo, who was already asleep, from Larry and practically ran to her car.

Larry stood behind me, his hand on my shoulder. “What was that about?”

“Just a girl talk”, I said, yawning lightly. “I’m exhausted, babe. I think I’ll sleep in the guest room tonight. I feel a bit of a headache coming on, and I don’t want to keep you up with my tossing and turning”.

I didn’t wait for his answer. I walked away, leaving him standing in the foyer of a house that was no longer home but a battlefield.