Chapter One:The Video
I knew my husband was cheating.
I just hadn't known how badly it would hurt to see proof.
For weeks, I'd been telling myself I was imagining things.
Adrian Blackwell was a billionaire. A man whose name appeared in business magazines and whose photograph could be found beside headlines about billion-dollar acquisitions.
Men like Adrian were always surrounded by women.
Beautiful women.
Ambitious women.
Women who knew exactly how much his attention was worth.
But I was his wife.
The woman he'd promised forever to.
So I ignored the late nights.
The secret phone calls.
The sudden passwords.
The way he'd started turning his phone face down whenever I entered the room.
Until that night.
Adrian had fallen asleep beside me after returning from another "business dinner."
His phone was charging on the nightstand.
I stared at it for several minutes.
Then I picked it up.
His password had changed.
Of course it had.
But Adrian had forgotten one thing.
I'd spent eight years studying him.
I knew the little habits he didn't realize he had.
Three attempts later, the phone unlocked.
My heart was pounding.
I opened his messages first.
Nothing.
Then his gallery.
Hundreds of photographs.
Business meetings.
Cars.
Hotels.
Family events.
And then I saw a hidden folder.
My fingers went cold.
I opened it.
The first video started automatically.
I froze.
It was Adrian.
With another woman.
There was no misunderstanding.
No innocent explanation.
No business meeting.
The woman was clearly intimate with him, and Adrian was clearly enjoying himself.
I couldn't breathe.
I watched for only a few seconds before shutting the video off.
My hands were trembling.
I wanted to wake him.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to throw his phone through the window.
Instead, I looked at the sleeping man beside me.
My husband.
The man I'd defended whenever someone suggested he might not be faithful.
The man I'd trusted with every fragile part of my heart.
He shifted in his sleep.
I quickly placed the phone back exactly where I'd found it.
Then I lay down beside him.
He reached for me unconsciously.
Normally, that tiny gesture would have made me feel loved.
That night, it made my stomach turn.
I stared at the ceiling until morning.
By sunrise, I had made a decision.
Adrian Blackwell was going to think his wife knew nothing.
I would smile.
I would kiss him.
I would sit beside him at charity dinners and hold his arm for the cameras.
And I would watch.
Because if my husband wanted to play a secret game…
I was about to learn how to play it better than him.
What Adrian didn't know was that the woman he'd betrayed wasn't going to beg for his love.
She was going to become the woman he could never afford to lose.
And by the time he realized what he'd done—
it would already be too late.
