Chapter 3

Fred was sitting behind his desk going over documents when I walked in. His face went cold. "You've come at the perfect time. Take that good little dog you brought in and drag her out with you. My company has no room for someone this vicious."

"Vicious? Fred, is that brain of yours just for decoration?"

I grabbed the stack of papers off his desk and hurled them straight into his face. "There are cameras in that hallway. All you have to do is pull the footage and you'll see exactly who was putting on a show! You'd fire a hardworking fifty-year-old woman over one scheming little snake, and you're not afraid of turning every person under you against you?"

Fred shot to his feet, his eyes ice. "Why would I look at the footage? Is the blood on Madison's hands fake too? Ruby, I know you have it in for Madison, but you don't get to send your servants to bully her! A pampered heiress like you, up on your pedestal, will never understand how hard life is for people at the bottom!"

Looking at him standing there so righteous, so certain, so pleased with his own stupidity, I suddenly went quiet.

Every explanation stuck in my throat, and every ounce of anger turned in that instant to bone-deep ice.

You can never wake a man who is only pretending to sleep, and you can never win back a man whose heart has already drifted clear across the Pacific.

"Fine. Very good." My fury curdled into a laugh, and I nodded. "Fred, I'll remember this."

I didn't waste another word arguing with him. I turned and walked out of the company.

I gave Katherine a million dollars to make her comfortable and arranged for her to recover at a private hospital owned by the Henson family.

From that day on, my heart was truly dead. I stopped asking what time Fred came home, stopped making his soup, stopped paying any attention to whatever gossip linked him to Madison.

I took the supplementary card he'd given me and threw myself into single life.

Spa days, jewelry, a chartered yacht for parties with my girlfriends. I spent recklessly, every single day, and never spared him another glance.

A month later, a bombshell went off in New York's circle of wealthy wives.

Someone posted a screenshot of an ultrasound from a private hospital downtown. The name on it was written clear as day: Madison Fox.

The caption read: "Our little miracle has finally arrived. Every bit of patience was worth it."

The moment it went out, all of New York's elite circles shook.

Everyone knew Ruby Henson had been married five years without a child, and now the husband's secretary was loudly announcing a pregnancy. Everyone was waiting to laugh at me, waiting to see when I'd be swept out the door.

Facing the storm sweeping the whole city, I was strangely calm.

No crying, no screaming, no threats. I didn't even make one accusing phone call to Fred.

Because I was busy with something far bigger.

Through that silent month, I put every resource the Henson family had to work and quietly assembled an elite team of New York's top divorce attorneys, forensic accountants, and private investigators.

"Dig." I sat in a private room at an exclusive club and gave the order to the team in front of me, my voice cold. "Every personal transaction Fred has made over these five years, every hidden expense buried in the company's books, every change to the properties and cars in his name. Turn all of it inside out. I want to know exactly how much he spent on that woman, and how much marital property he moved out from under me."

I don't fight a battle I'm not prepared for. If I was leaving, I would peel a layer off Fred first, and let him learn that a Henson woman is not to be trifled with.

For a month my team worked around the clock, and at last they handed me an exhaustively detailed report.

Looking at that thick stack of transaction records, I smiled. Fred, you really are generous.

The show was about to begin.

As it happened, this Friday was the Gilbert family's once-a-month dinner.

The old Gilbert mansion blazed with light. Tristram Gilbert, my mother-in-law, and a crowd of the Gilberts' extended relatives had all arrived. I wore a sharply fitted black velvet gown, my makeup immaculate, and sat alone at the dining table, calmly sipping my tea.

"Ruby, dear, why isn't Fred back yet?" My mother-in-law watched me, a thread of displeasure and probing in her tone. She'd clearly heard the rumor of Madison's pregnancy too, and the look in her eyes at me had turned all the sharper.

"He's busy with work, I suppose." I answered lightly.

The words had barely left my mouth when the carved wooden doors of the hall were pushed open from outside.

The whole room fell dead silent.

Fred strode in wearing a couture suit. And tucked close in the crook of his arm was Madison.

Madison wore a loose white maternity dress today, flat shoes on her feet, one hand hooked through Fred's arm while the other deliberately stroked a belly that was still completely flat, a victor's coy, smug little smile on her face.

"Fred! Have you lost your mind! This is a family dinner. What are you doing bringing an outsider here!" Tristram slammed his cane down, shaking with rage.

Fred didn't flinch. Instead he led Madison to the center of the hall, his gaze sweeping the room before it landed on me, a challenge in it.

"Grandfather, Mother, everyone." Fred's voice rang out. "I've brought Madison today because there is something important I need to announce."

He paused, and his eyes turned unusually gentle as he looked at the woman beside him. "Madison is pregnant. It's my child, two months along now. Ruby has been married into the Gilbert family five years with nothing to show for it. The Gilberts cannot be left without an heir, so I've decided to give Madison and the child she's carrying a proper title."

The words dropped like a bombshell, throwing the entire Gilbert household into chaos.

My mother-in-law was stunned at first, and then something like wild joy flickered deep in her eyes.

She'd been half-crazed wanting a grandson. She might look down on Madison's background, but the flesh in that belly was a Gilbert's.

She glanced at me, opened her mouth, then closed it again, and in the end said nothing.

Some of the other relatives sucked in sharp breaths, some whispered among themselves, all of them looking at me with a mix of pity and contempt.

Madison looked at me timidly, her eyes rimmed red. "Ruby, I'm sorry... I never meant to break up your family, but the baby is innocent... If you can't bear to have me here, I'm willing to take the child and disappear far away. I would never put Mr. Gilbert in a difficult position..."

Retreat as a way to advance, and she played it to perfection.

Fred immediately pulled her into his arms, pained on her behalf, and said to me coldly, "Ruby, you can't force what isn't sweet. You know in your heart how these five years have been. As long as you agree to the divorce, I won't treat you unfairly. The villa on the South Side is yours, and I'll give you another fifty million as compensation. Let's part on good terms."

Every eye in the room fixed on me, waiting for my collapse, my scene, or my humiliated surrender.