He threw money on the bed after our one-night stand.
I threw it back in his face at his own inauguration.
By sundown, we were engaged. By the week's end — married.
Franklin Flemington needed a wife to secure his empire. I needed a miracle to save my family. For two years, we played our parts flawlessly — the golden couple the whole city envied.
Behind closed doors, I was invisible to him.
When the two years were up, I handed him divorce papers without blinking.
He stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "I've given you everything a husband should. What more do you want from me, Octavia?"
I smiled, signed my name, and walked out.
I thought that was the end. I thought I'd finally won.
I forgot one thing — Franklin Flemington has never lost anything in his life. And he has no intention of starting with me.
Game on.

The suspicion had been a slow-growing rot in the back of my mind ever since I wired that first two million. 


I wanted to believe Bella was just desperate, perhaps even a little manic from our time apart, clinging to whatever sense of control she could find. I made excuses for her—too many of them. But the math wasn't adding up anymore. The requests, the urgency, the inconsistencies in her stories… they formed a pattern I could no longer ignore.


I needed to look into her eyes and find the woman I thought I loved.


I had Walter drive me to her apartment in the city. I didn't call ahead. I didn't want her to have time to put on a mask.


As I reached her door, I raised my hand to knock, but I froze. Her voice was drifting through the wood—sharp, clear, and vibrating with a cruel kind of excitement. She was on the phone.


"Of course I have you in mind, Rufus. Always, baby."


Chapter 48 - ~ 48