She reluctantly sat down, and Oliver placed a plate of trout and vegetables in front of her. “I made this especially for you. It’s your favorite.”
Her stomach twisted and turned.
Cecelia was the one who loved trout. Madelynn was deathly allergic to seafood.
They had been married for four years, and her husband still didn’t know about her allergies. If he had paid any attention to her all these years, he definitely wouldn’t be serving her something that could kill her in minutes.
“What’s wrong? Why are you eating?” He asked when he noticed she was just staring at the plate.
She gently pushed the plate away from her and reached into her bag for the documents. “Dinner can wait. I need you to sign these.”
Oliver frowned. “What’s so important that I have to sign now? You know how much I hate talking about work at the dinner table.”
Just as he reached for the papers, his phone vibrated.
He almost sprained his wrist with how fast he tried to cover the screen, but she already saw it.
It was Cecelia.
He immediately stood up and walked over to the balcony to take the call. The sudden movement caused his wine glass to fall off the table, sending shards of glass everywhere.
A small piece of glass nicked her on the arm and red immediately tainted her fair skin and dripped onto the floor.
Oliver didn’t even turn around to look. He spent a long time on the balcony talking to Cecelia before he grabbed his coat from the rack and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” She asked quietly even though she already knew the answer.
“Something came up. I have to go.”
“You haven’t signed the papers.”
He sighed, then walked back to the table and hastily signed his name on the bottom of both pages. “There. Can I go now?”
She stared at the signatures in resignation, and nodded softly. “Yeah… go.”
He walked out at the speed of light. Like something was chasing him out of their home.
She laughed bitterly. He couldn’t even bother to pay enough attention to know that he had just signed the papers for her freedom.
Or that their floor was stained with her blood.
Oliver had always loved Cecelia. She was the “real” heir to the Fontaine wealth after all.
When Madelynn was a little girl, her mother’s most trusted maid died and left a little daughter, Cecelia. No one knew who her father was, and there were no other family members to take her either.