CHAPTER 2 — THE WOMAN HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE MARRIED
"You..."
Mason whispered.
"Who are you?"
I smiled through the pain.
"I told you years ago."
"You never listened."
He remembered our first meeting.
A courthouse.
I worked as a quiet records clerk.
Always carrying boxes.
Always avoiding attention.
Always invisible.
Except...
I had never worked for the courthouse.
I worked beneath it.
Inside a federal financial crimes task force.
Paperwork wasn't paperwork.
It was evidence.
Every signature.
Every property deed.
Every offshore transfer.
Every shell company.
Every criminal eventually touched government records.
And every trail eventually reached...
Mason Caldwell.
For four years...
I disappeared into his world.
I learned his routines.
His lawyers.
His accountants.
His girlfriends.
His bodyguards.
His drug routes.
Then he proposed.
Federal agents begged me to refuse.
Instead...
I said yes.
Because monsters always confess to people they believe they own.
Mason confessed everything.
He bragged after expensive dinners.
He laughed about judges he bribed.
He joked about politicians he controlled.
He believed I loved him too much to betray him.
Then I became pregnant.
Everything changed.
The DEA ordered me out immediately.
I refused.
Because I needed one final shipment.
One shipment large enough to destroy everyone above him.
Then Mason discovered someone was leaking information.
He panicked.
The car crash followed.
The hired driver survived.
He confessed.
The recordings reached the DEA.
My undercover identity ended.
Only one problem remained.
No drugs.
No physical evidence.
Until last month.
Mason trusted me enough to pack his luggage.
He never imagined his pregnant wife would slip GPS trackers into his golf clubs.
Or hide microscopic cameras inside his favorite cigar case.
Or replace his golf towels with evidence pouches.
Every shipment.
Every meeting.
Every murder order.
Recorded.
Stored.
Uploaded.
Automatically.
The DEA didn't find his yacht by luck.
They followed me.
Mason staggered backward.
"You destroyed everything."
"No."
"You did."
Sirens echoed across the harbor.
Then another sound filled the penthouse.
Heavy boots.
The front door exploded inward.
"FEDERAL AGENTS!"
"DON'T MOVE!"
Twenty armed officers flooded inside.
Mason grabbed my wheelchair.
He spun it violently toward the balcony.
"If I can't escape..."
"You die with me."
He shoved.
The wheelchair rolled toward empty air.
But before it crossed the edge—
A sniper's laser appeared on Mason's chest.
Then another.
Then six more.
A voice thundered through the room.
"LET HER GO!"
Instead...
Mason jumped.
Not toward freedom.
Toward the neighboring rooftop.
He almost made it.
Almost.
His polished shoes slipped on rainwater.
For one endless second...
The billionaire drug king floated between two buildings.
Then gravity made its decision.
He crashed through the glass roof of his own luxury yacht.
Directly into the cargo hold...
Filled with fentanyl bricks.
The agents below stared in disbelief.
One finally muttered,
"Guess he wanted to surrender personally."
Everyone laughed.
Except me.
May you like
Because I knew...
The real mastermind still hadn't appeared.
