Chapter 3

I was discharged the next day. Nathan sent a driver — he didn't come himself.

When I arrived at the Cole mansion, the first thing I did was go to Nathan's study.

In my previous life, I had never entered this room. He told me it was private, and I had respected that like the obedient wife I was.

The door was locked, but I knew the code. I had seen Nathan enter it once through a reflection in the hallway mirror — 0601. Vivian's birthday.

He had been using my stepsister's birthday as his password while married to me.

The study was immaculate. Dark wood, leather chairs, a wall of legal books he had never read. Nathan was a businessman, not a scholar. The books were decoration.

I went straight to the filing cabinet.

My father had been a careful man. Before he died, he had told me something I didn't understand at the time: "Ruby, the company's real value isn't in the shares. It's in the land contracts. Whoever holds the original contracts controls everything."

In my previous life, I had never looked for them. I didn't know what he meant until it was too late.

Now I understood perfectly.

The Ashford Group's most valuable asset was a series of land development contracts signed twenty years ago. These contracts gave the holder rights to three prime locations in the city center — land that was now worth billions.

My father had hidden the originals somewhere. Caroline and Nathan had been searching for them for over a year.

That was the real reason Nathan married me. Not for the shares — for the contracts.

He thought my father had told me where they were. But my father died before he could finish explaining.

I searched the filing cabinet quickly. Nothing. Nathan hadn't found them either.

Good.

I needed to find those contracts before they did.

I left the study and locked it behind me. When I turned around, the housekeeper, Mrs. Park, was standing in the hallway.

"Ma'am, you shouldn't be in Mr. Cole's study."

"I was looking for my prenatal vitamins. I thought I left them in there."

Mrs. Park's expression didn't change. She had worked for the Cole Family for fifteen years. Her loyalty was to Helen, not to me.

"I'll have them sent to your room."

"Thank you."

I walked back to my bedroom — the one I shared with Nathan, though he rarely slept in it. The room was beautifully decorated and completely empty of warmth.

I opened my laptop and began searching through my father's old emails. He had given me access to his personal account before he died. In my previous life, I never checked it — I was too consumed by grief.

It took me three hours, but I finally found it.

An email to his lawyer, dated one week before his death: "The originals are where Ruby took her first steps. She'll know when the time is right."

Where I took my first steps.

My childhood home — a small house in Vermont that my father had kept even after he became wealthy. He said it was where my mother's spirit still lived.

Caroline had sold that house six months after my father's funeral.

My heart sank. If the contracts were hidden there and the house was sold—

I pulled up the property records. The house had been purchased by an anonymous buyer. It was currently vacant.

I needed to get to Vermont. But if I left now, Nathan would get suspicious.

I picked up my phone and called the only person I trusted — my college roommate, Stella.

"Stella, I need a favor. And I need you to not ask questions."

"Last time you said that, we ended up in a police station in Cancun."

Despite everything, I almost smiled. "This is more serious."

"I'm listening."

"I need you to go to Vermont for me."

Before I could explain further, I heard footsteps outside my door.

Then Nathan's voice: "Ruby, we need to talk."