Chapter 5

An hour later, Ruby and I met the legendary Knox in a private room at the Breeze Café.

He looked completely unremarkable—average height, the kind of face people'd forget the moment they saw it, someone who could disappear in any crowd. But his eyes were razor-sharp, cold and predatory, like a hawk sizing up its prey.

"Ms. Reed, your reputation precedes you," he said, giving me a curt nod as his way of saying hello.

"Mr. Schaefer, Ruby should've told you everything I need," I said, not wasting any time. "I only have one requirement—make it fast."

"Understood," Knox said, pulling a tablet out of his battered briefcase. "Fifty percent as a deposit. The balance is due when the job is done."

Ruby barely glanced at it before paying with a quick tap of her phone.

"Done," Ruby said.

Knox glanced at the confirmation on his tablet and nodded, clearly satisfied.

"Give me three days, tops a week, and you'll have everything in your inbox," he said, getting up to leave.

"Hold on," I called out, stopping him.

He turned around and looked at me.

"I need you to look into one more person," I said, locking eyes with him, spelling it out slow and clear. "A woman. I don't know her name, but I'm sure she's Ethan's true love."

Yeah, that woman was his true love.

Sophie was only a decoy, pushed out front to take the heat.

Ethan wouldn't go through all this to dump me and marry someone who was nowhere near me in family, looks, or talent.

There'd got to be another woman lurking in the shadows behind all this.

She was the kind of woman he'd throw caution to the wind for—risk it all, no matter the consequences.

She was the one I was really after.

There was a brief flash of surprise in Knox's eyes, but he didn't ask anything. He nodded.

"That'll be an extra twenty percent," he said.

"Deal," Ruby replied, transferring the money without a second thought.

After Knox left, Ruby and I didn't leave right away.

The café was filled with soothing music, but inside, my mind was a battlefield.

"Jessica, do you really think Ethan's got someone else?" Ruby asked, topping off my coffee, her voice a little unsure.

"Yeah," I said, lifting my cup and blowing off the steam. "I know Ethan better than anyone. He's selfish, spineless, and incredibly arrogant. A girl like Sophie is way beneath him—he'd never actually want her.

"He likes having someone fawn over him, makes him feel important. No way he'd pull off such a big scheme, even risk getting someone killed for a girl like her."

Ruby fell silent.

Yeah, if a man really wanted a divorce, there were countless ways to make it happen.

Ethan could walk away with nothing, settle things with a divorce agreement, or even get caught cheating—all of that would be way simpler than going as far as ruining me.

The fact that he chose the most extreme, most vicious way only proves he was after more than freedom.

He wanted everything—every last piece of me.

He wanted my money, my company, everything I ever built.

And he wanted to make sure I'd stay down for good, never rise again.

"That bastard!" Ruby slammed her fist on the table, her face twisted with rage. "I swear, I want to go kill him right now."

"Calm down," I said, setting my cup down, my eyes cold as ice. "The game's only getting started. Everything he owes me—I'll make him pay it back and double the pain."

For the next three days, I locked myself away in Ruby's villa, never stepping outside.

Meanwhile, the news about me was blowing up online.

[Elite Lawyer Kills for Love—Knows the Law but Breaks It Anyway, Double the Crime.]

[Vicious Beauty. The Untold Story of Jessica Reed's Rise to Power.]

All sorts of scandalous headlines and articles were blowing up online. My photos, my resume, even snapshots from my college days—all of it got exposed and shared everywhere.

Everyone saw me as public enemy number one, a jealous, ruthless, and totally unhinged woman.

The law firm's phones were ringing off the hook, and a bunch of our business partners were already trying to pull out. Even on some of our biggest cases, clients were requesting replacements.

The company's stock price was tanking, dropping like a rock.

I knew this would happen.

Or really, this was all part of Ethan's plan.

He wanted me dead. He also wanted to destroy everything I held dear before I even had a chance to die.

Ruby was like a cat on a hot tin roof, clutching her laptop as she frantically tried to fix the company's mess, swearing nonstop.

But I was strangely calm.

I was waiting.

I was waiting for word from Knox, waiting for a chance to strike back when all hope seemed lost.

On the morning of the fourth day, I received an encrypted email in my inbox.

It was from Knox.

I took a deep breath and opened the email.

There were tons of files—photos, videos, voice recordings, bank records—pretty much everything I could imagine.

It took me the entire day to sift through it all.

When I was done, there wasn't a trace of anger in me, and I didn't shed a single tear.

I found it all so ridiculous.

Funny, really—I always thought I was the smartest person in the room, yet I ended up getting completely taken in by a man.

Knox's investigation backed up every single suspicion I had. And honestly, it was way worse than I ever thought possible.

Ethan, my so-called husband, had been fooling around with other women since our second year together.

He had a whole harem.

Those women all had the same vibe: big boobs, long legs, and that typical Instagram look.

He was spending my hard-earned cash on designer bags, fancy cars, and even houses for them.

All he ever gave me was that same old line: "Jessica, you're the only one for me."

Sophie was collateral damage, a disposable pawn. Ethan toyed with her from beginning to end.

He played on her feelings, made her come at me, rile me up so he could paint me as some crazy woman driven mad by jealousy.

And that killer text? We finally figured it out.

It was sent through some virtual cell tower overseas—no way to find out who actually sent it.

The most crucial discovery was the real woman Knox found hiding behind Ethan—the one truly pulling the strings.

When I saw her photo and read her file, I was frozen in place.

I was stunned.