But if you go to the police, I’ll make sure everyone knows about your past.
The loan default.
The bankruptcy.
You’ll lose everything.”
I deleted the message and looked at Keely.
“He’s threatening me.”
“What are you going to do?”
I smiled for the first time in days.
“I’m going to make sure he has nothing left to threaten me with.”
Chapter 5 – The Woman Who Thought She Knew My Husband
Keely was sitting in the reception area of my own company, her eyes swollen and her hands trembling around a paper cup.
She stood up the moment she saw me.
“Azalea, I need to talk to you.”
I stopped a few feet away from her, my arms folded tight.
“You have five minutes,” I said.
She nodded quickly, like she was afraid I would change my mind.
“I didn’t know about you,” she said.
“Dunstan told me he was divorced.
He said the company was his.
He showed me papers, Azalea.
He said his ex-wife tried to take everything from him, and he was starting over.”
I stared at her.
“He said what?”
“He said the company was his,” she repeated, her voice shaking.
“He told me the divorce was finalized two years ago.
He said you were bitter and trying to ruin him.
I believed him.”
I felt the floor shift under my feet.
Not because I believed her—not yet—but because the story was so specific.
It was exactly the kind of lie Dunstan would tell.
“Why would you believe a man who paid for your surgery with someone else’s money?”
I asked.
Keely looked down at her hands.
“Because I didn’t know it was someone else’s money.
I thought it was his.
He told me he had a successful business.
He said he wanted to take care of me.”
She looked up at me, and for the first time I saw something besides shame in her eyes.
I saw anger.
“I didn’t know he was married, Azalea.
I’m not that kind of woman.
But now that I do know, I want to help you.”
I didn’t move.
“Help me how?”
“I have every text, every email, every receipt he ever sent me.
I have a record of everything he bought, every appointment he scheduled, every time he told me he was finalizing the divorce.
It’s all on my phone and in my email.
I can give it to you.”
I looked at her for a long moment.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because he lied to me too,” she said.
“And because I’m scared of him.
I want out, but I don’t know how.
If I just leave, he’ll come after me.
But if you help me, and I help you, maybe we both get free.”
I walked past her to the window and looked out at the street.
My husband had built a second life on my back, and this woman—this woman I had wanted to hate—was offering me the only thing that could save me.
Evidence.
“I’ll help you,” I said, turning back around.
“But you have to do exactly what I say.
No contact with him unless I know about it.
No promises.
No games.
We do this clean.”
She nodded.
“Okay.”
“And Keely—” I said, my voice lower now, “if you’re lying to me, I will make sure you go down with him.”
“I’m not lying.”
I believed her.
We sat down at the conference table, and she pulled out her phone.
For the next hour, she showed me everything.
Texts where he called me his ex.
Screenshots of the loan documents he had supposedly signed.
Photos of the apartment he had rented for her, paid for with a company card.
By the time Vera came back in, I had a stack of printouts and a name I hadn’t heard before.
Miles.
Dunstan’s brother.
Keely said he had been at the apartment once, late at night, arguing with Dunstan about money.
“He said something about an offshore account,” she said.
“I didn’t understand it then.
But I remember the name.
Miles.”
Vera and I exchanged a look.
We had a trail.
But before we could follow it, I needed to know how bad the damage was.
I called the bank.
And when the representative read me the balance in the main operating account, my hand went cold around the phone.
It was nearly empty.
The money I had built over fifteen years, the money that paid my employees, was almost gone.
I hung up and turned to Vera.
“We need to move fast,” I said.
“He’s already taken it.”
Keely looked at me with wide eyes.
“What do we do now?”
I grabbed my coat.
“Now we find out if there’s anything left to save.”
