. CHAPTER 2 — The Woman in Red
Ethan saw Khloe on the floor first.
Not Vanessa’s tears. Not the overturned chair. Not the theatrical way Vanessa pressed one hand to her chest as if she had been the one attacked.
He saw his wife curled on the marble, breathing carefully because every breath hurt.
“Khloe,” he said.
His voice was low, but the room heard the storm inside it.
Vanessa moved faster than truth. She ran toward him, her red dress flowing like spilled wine. “Ethan, thank God! She attacked me. She lost control. I tried to calm her down, but she—”
“Move.”
One word.
Vanessa stopped as if he had slapped the air in front of her.
Ethan crossed the foyer and dropped beside Khloe. The moment his hand touched her shoulder, Khloe’s face crumpled. Not from weakness. From relief. She had been holding herself together because she had no other choice.
“She kicked me,” Khloe whispered. “I asked her to stop. I told her about the baby.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened so hard the muscle jumped near his ear.
Vanessa gave a high, desperate laugh. “Listen to her. She’s making this up. She’s jealous because she knows she’ll never fit in here.”
Ethan did not look at her. He slid one arm behind Khloe’s back, careful, gentle, terrified. “Are you bleeding? Can you stand?”
“I don’t know,” Khloe said, tears catching in her lashes. “It hurts.”
The word hurt seemed to hit him harder than any accusation.
A year ago, Ethan had met Khloe in a hospital hallway after his father’s heart surgery. She had been the nurse who stayed past her shift because Walter Monroe was afraid to sleep. She had no idea Walter was a billionaire. She treated him like a frightened old man, not a fortune.
That was why Ethan loved her.
That was why Vanessa hated her.
Vanessa had planned to marry Ethan before Khloe entered the picture. She had been approved by the family, polished by society, welcomed by donors. Khloe had arrived with kindness and ruined a decade of strategy without even trying.
Now Vanessa pointed at Khloe. “She started screaming. She said this house was hers!”
Khloe’s eyes widened.
Ethan slowly stood.
Vanessa took a step back.
“This house?” Ethan asked.
Vanessa swallowed. “Yes. She said she owned everything.”
May you like
For the first time, Ethan looked up at the small black dome above the staircase.
“No,” he said quietly. “She didn’t.”
