Chapter 3

Before I could say a word, the voice on the other end came bright with excitement.

"Miss Gray, it's been so long since you called home."

But this was no time to reminisce. I spoke quickly.

"Dudley Armstrong, I have something I need you to handle for me..."

"Of course, Miss Gray. What do you need?"

I laid out the plan I'd been turning over in my head.

"Find some excuse to keep Neil James tied up, then bring some specialists to my house. Here's what I want..."

Dudley answered at once.

"Understood, Miss Gray. I'll bring the team over."

An hour later.

Dudley arrived at the villa with his people.

Every one of them was loaded down with bags and cases, and the moment they stepped inside they opened a black box the size of a desktop tower.

"Everyone in position. We cut all network access in ten minutes and bring the bridge system online..."

I couldn't follow the technical jargon, so I pulled Dudley aside.

"Dudley, did you bring the reagent and the UV light I asked for?"

The specialists he'd brought were already reinstalling and adjusting the house's surveillance system.

He had the equipment in his hands, and he asked me one more time.

"Miss Gray, are you sure you want to run this test? Neil James isn't some nobody from a small family. I think you already understand that."

"Once the results come back, good or bad, once trust breaks, there's no going back for you."

I gave a firm nod.

"I know, Dudley. I've already made up my mind. I'm the heiress of the Gray Group. What is Neil James, really?"

"I'm more and more certain that nanny and her daughter were only strutting around in front of me because Neil James let them."

"He uses my family's resources, plays the successful man in public, the rising star of business. But for me, the one who gave him all of it, he can't even be bothered with a detail like this."

"A man like that. I'm not just taking back everything the Gray Group gave him, I'm going to grind him into the dirt."

Dudley heard out my whole heated speech, said nothing more, and simply sprayed the mist in his hand across the sofa.

A few minutes later, he took out a lamp and shone it over the cushions.

At once, under the special light, the sofa lit up with large patches of fluorescence, uneven in depth, clearly not left on the same day.