May 3rd.

I looked up, my throat so tight the air stopped moving. “What do these dates mean, Calvin?”

“October 14th was the exact day Charles Holloway was indicted for federal wire fraud,” Calvin said softly. “May 3rd was the day housekeeping found his body.”

A wave of nausea washed over me so violent the room spun. I dropped the journal as if the leather had caught fire. This wasn’t infidelity or ordinary greed.

It was a meticulously planned revenge narrative. Every tender moment, every anniversary, every manufactured coincidence in our relationship had been scripted by Judith and carried out by Grant as an act of family vengeance.

He’d never loved me. He was a sleeper agent planted in my life, playing the loving partner until he could destroy me from the inside.