Chapter 4

"Could her family have hired a lawyer for her?" Claire asked carefully.

Stephen didn't answer. He picked up his phone and dialed a number. "Look into everyone Victoria's been in contact with over the past three months, especially anyone in law or finance."

After hanging up, he looked at Claire. "You should head home for today."

Claire bit her lip. "Stephen, about the asset list in that agreement... there are things on there I really didn't know about."

"Like what?"

"For example, the mortgage payment records for those three properties under your name." Claire's voice got softer and softer. "That information should only be known to you and the bank staff handling the accounts."

Stephen's gaze darkened.

He thought back to the way Victoria had looked just now. No tears. No hysteria. She'd spoken in a calm, measured way, with logic so clear it was like she was reading from a prepared script. Even the way she'd looked at him was different. Gone was the cautious attempt to please him. Gone was that tangled mix of love and resentment she used to have when they fought. What had replaced it was complete indifference, a kind of calm that didn't care one bit.

That kind of calm was more unsettling than any crying fit could have been.

And then he suddenly realized something.

Victoria had said she knew about him and Claire. But when had she found out? How long had she known? And during that time, what exactly had she been doing?

His phone rang. It was his assistant calling back. "Mr. Foster, Miss Lane really did meet with a few people over the past two months. One was a partner at Brightwell Law Firm, another was a senior auditor from Evertrust Accounting, and the last one was..."

"Who?"

"The former finance director of that tech company you acquired two years ago. He's working at a small investment firm now."

Stephen's fingers tightened slightly around the phone.

That former finance director knew a lot of inside details about the Foster Group Acquisition Case. If Victoria had really gotten something from him...

"Keep digging." Stephen hung up, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

Claire Sinclair was still standing nearby, carefully watching his expression. She had never seen Stephen like this before. It wasn't anger, and it wasn't coldness. It was something closer to... unease.

"Stephen, are you okay?"

Stephen opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Did you help her draft that agreement?"

Claire jerked her head up, her eyes reddening again. "You suspect me? Stephen, how could I possibly..."

"Then tell me how she got those numbers."

Claire opened her mouth, but no words came out.

It hit her all at once. If Victoria really had that kind of information in her hands, then the relationship between her and Stephen was probably way more complicated than she'd thought.

After leaving Foster Villa, Victoria went straight to the bank.

At three in the afternoon, the counters weren't busy. She handed over her bankbook and several cards. The teller glanced at them, then looked up to size her up.

"Ma'am, the total funds in these accounts are quite large. Withdrawals of this size require an appointment in advance."

"I know." Victoria slid her ID over too. "I'm not withdrawing cash today. I'm making a transfer. Send it to this account."

She passed over a slip of paper with an account name written on it: Lane Trading Co.

The teller worked at the terminal for a while, and a string of numbers popped up on the screen. Looking at it, Victoria quietly did the math in her head. Three years of marriage. Pocket money from the Foster family. Holiday gifts. Birthday money. Returns from the investments she'd made before marriage. Plus the portion of her dowry assets that had to be returned under the divorce agreement. Altogether, it was less than 2.7 million dollars.

To an ordinary person, 2.7 million dollars was a fortune. But compared with everything she'd burned through during those three years of marriage to Stephen Foster, it was nothing.

What had she burned through?

Three years of youth. Her health. And half of her family's network. In her last life, after the divorce, Stephen had immediately used her family's connections to secure that parcel of land in Southgate. Her father had even said back then, they're family, so helping is only natural. Less than half a year after the divorce, that land deal ran into trouble. Her father got dragged into it, and in the end, he jumped to his death.

This life, she wasn't giving Stephen that chance.