Bound to my Rival

Chapter Three

The coat stayed locked in the wardrobe for three days.

I told myself I had forgotten about it, but every time I opened the wardrobe, my eyes went to the place where I had hidden it. The faint perfume still bothered me, though I had no proof that it meant anything. Adrian continued behaving as he always had. He left early, returned late, asked about my day, kissed my forehead before bed and spoke about the pack as though nothing in our lives had changed.

That almost made things worse. If he had become distant or careless, I might have known what to think. Instead, he gave me the same warmth I had trusted for years, leaving me to wonder whether something was wrong with him or with me.

Then the first envelope arrived.

There was no name on it. I found it waiting on my desk one afternoon while sorting through correspondence. Inside were several photographs, and the first one made my hands go cold. Adrian stood outside a private building with a woman beside him. She had her back to the camera, but I recognized her immediately from the few times I had seen her at formal gatherings.

Vivienne Blackwood. The Alpha’s wife.

I turned to the next photograph. They were sitting together inside a vehicle. Another showed them entering a restaurant through a side entrance, with dates and times written beneath each image. I kept looking, searching for some harmless explanation that might make sense of what I was seeing, but nothing in those photographs gave me one.

I pushed them aside and opened the second envelope.

This time, there were financial documents. At first, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. Then I recognized the account numbers connected to my family’s assets. Transfers had been made over several months, small amounts at first, followed by larger ones. Money from territories that had belonged to my family, funds from accounts I had handed over to Adrian after our marriage, and several payments that had been moved through different accounts before disappearing into private investments.

I checked the figures again, hoping I had misunderstood them. I hadn’t.

He had been taking from me.

The realization should have shattered me, but instead, a strange calm settled over me. For days, I had searched for reasons to believe him. I had questioned my own instincts, dismissed the perfume, defended his late nights and told myself Roman was trying to manipulate me. Now I was sitting with evidence that reached far beyond an accusation of infidelity.

I gathered everything into a folder and locked it inside my desk.

For the first time, I understood something I had refused to admit. Once trust develops a crack, you cannot simply cover it and pretend the damage isn’t there. You either repair it with the truth or accept that it was never as strong as you believed.

I needed the truth.

That evening, I took the card from my drawer. The handwritten message was still there.

Contact me when you are ready to face the truth.

I had hated those words when I first read them. Now I picked up my phone and called the number on the other side.

He answered quickly. “I assume you’ve changed your mind.”

“I want to meet.”

There was a short pause before he gave me a location. “Tomorrow. The private room at the east side of the old council building.”

“I’ll be there.”

I ended the call before he could say anything else.

The next afternoon, I arrived alone. He was already waiting near the window, dressed in a dark suit, his expression as controlled as it had been at the banquet. When he looked at me, there was no satisfaction in his eyes. He seemed to be studying how I had changed.

I placed his card on the table between us.

“Since you were so confident,” I said, “prove it to me.”

He glanced at the card, then reached for a folder beside him. “This is what I have.”

He slid it across the table.

I opened it carefully. Inside were records of meetings between Adrian and Vivienne, with dates, times and locations listed beside each entry. Some matched the photographs I had received. Others had happened before I had ever heard the accusation.

I turned another page and found more.

My throat tightened as I read through them. I had spent years believing I knew my husband better than anyone. Yet these pages described a part of his life that had existed right beside mine without my knowledge.

I looked up at Roman.

“If these are forged, I will make you pay for defaming my husband.”

His expression remained unreadable.

“And if it’s real?”

The question landed harder than I expected.

My fingers tightened around the papers. For so long, I had protected Adrian without asking what I was protecting. I had defended his reputation because I loved him, defended his decisions because I trusted him and ignored every uncomfortable detail because accepting the possibility of betrayal felt impossible.

Now I looked at the evidence in front of me and felt something inside me settle.

I didn’t want another excuse. I didn’t want another explanation designed to make everything easier to accept. If he had betrayed me, I would face it. If he had stolen from my family, I would take back what was mine. And if he had destroyed the marriage I had given everything to protect, I would make sure he understood exactly what that choice had cost him.

“Then I will make him pay a price far more devastating than losing me.”

The words came quietly, but I meant every one of them.

Roman studied me for several seconds before closing the folder and standing. He walked toward the door, and I rose from my chair.

“Where are you going?”

He stopped and looked back at me.

For a moment, I hesitated. Following him meant stepping further into something I had spent days trying to avoid. It meant accepting that the life I had believed in might have been built on lies, and that whatever waited beyond that door could change everything I thought I knew about my husband, my marriage and even my own future.

But I had already spent too long protecting a truth I had never actually seen.

I pushed my chair back and picked up the folder. My hands were steady now, even though my heart was beating hard against my ribs. Whatever I was about to find, I would face it myself. I was done letting fear decide what I was allowed to know.

Roman opened the door and waited.

“If you want to see the full truth with your own eyes, follow me.”