Woman returned early from a business trip and found her father kneeling on the floor cleaning, while her mother-in-law mocked him: “This house
“And what are you going to do when he gets here?”
I looked at my reflection in the mirror, my eyes red and my face pale, but my determination felt harder than steel.
“I am going to let Kyle believe he is still winning.”
When we came out of the room, Susan and Heather were still pretending to watch television, though I could see them staring at us with nervous, predatory curiosity. I walked my father to the front door, called a taxi for him, and wrapped him in a long, steadying hug.
“Just trust me, Dad,” I whispered, and he climbed into the cab without once looking back at the house that had betrayed him.
After the car disappeared from view, I returned inside, and my mother-in-law instantly turned toward me with poisonous interest.
“Has your father already left? The poor man looked like he was completely shaken up.”
I faced her with a calm I had not known I could summon.
“Yes, he left. Now, we just have to wait for Kyle to come home.”
As they smiled, completely unaware of the trap I was already building, I knew exactly how I was going to take apart their entire lives.PART 2
Kyle finally picked up on the fifth ring, his voice coated in that false, sugary tenderness I had once been foolish enough to believe.
“Hey, love, how are you doing? Is everything okay over there at the office?”
“I am at home right now,” I replied, my voice calm and cold.
A sudden, cutting silence followed on the other end, then the sharp scream of tires, as though he had slammed his foot on the brakes.
“At home? What do you mean you are at home? Did you just get back?”
“I finished up the contract ahead of schedule, so I decided to fly back early to surprise you,” I said, forcing brightness into my tone.
“Oh… of course… what a wonderful surprise,” he stammered, obviously fighting to regain control of himself. “Is everything alright? Was the project a success?”
I smiled, though there was not a trace of happiness behind it.
“That is actually exactly why I am calling you. I need you to listen to me very calmly. You cannot tell anyone about this, especially not your mother or Heather, because this has to stay strictly between us.”
“What are you talking about, Chloe? What happened?”
I dropped my voice into a secretive whisper, as if I were about to place a kingdom in his hands.
“Kyle, I think we have an opportunity to change our lives forever.”
I heard the shift in his breathing, the instant spark of greed catching fire.
“What do you mean?”
“There is a confidential expansion project at my company. They are going to build a massive data center and industrial park in a remote area of southern Idaho that has been stalled for years due to local land disputes. It has not been announced yet, but
once the public filing happens, that land will triple in value overnight.”
“Are you absolutely sure about this?”
“I saw the confidential master plan documents before I left. I cannot move any of my own money because the company is performing an internal audit on all senior management after the trip. If I make a personal purchase now, it will look like illegal insider trading. But you could do it for us.”
Kyle became completely quiet, and I could almost hear his mind racing through the numbers.
“How much money would we need to get in on this?”
“A friend of mine from university, a real estate developer named Rachel, owns five prime lots in that sector. She is currently in debt due to a failed project elsewhere and is looking to sell them quickly for six million dollars. If someone buys the land now, in a few weeks they could easily sell it for eighteen million or more.”
“Eighteen million?” he whispered, his voice shaking with open hunger.
“Yes, but it has to be immediate. If we wait, other investors will catch wind of the rumors.”
