Chapter 4

Back in that gilded cage of a mansion, I began the most grueling — and most nauseating — performance of my life.

Kevin Prescott was a remarkably sharp and suspicious man. Ten years of living as Nathan Jarvis without a single slip — that took the kind of near-obsessive caution and need for control that bordered on pathological.

I had to bury every ounce of hatred, fear, and disgust deep inside me, and meet him with the most perfect smile and the sweetest voice I could manage.

"Honey, you're home."

That evening, when Kevin pushed open the front door, I was already there to greet him — wearing his favorite silk slip, holding a warm bowl of soup I'd spent the afternoon making, a bright smile fixed on my face.

His gaze lingered on me for a few seconds. It was the kind of look that searched and dissected, like he was trying to see straight through me.

My heart leapt into my throat, but I kept my smile perfectly in place.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?" I asked, touching my cheek with a playful pout.

He smiled suddenly. The suspicion in his eyes receded like a tide, replaced by that familiar, hollow tenderness.

"No. I just think my wife looks especially beautiful tonight." He reached out and wrapped an arm around my waist, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

I swallowed back the nausea rising in my stomach and held the bowl out to him.

"Drink it while it's hot."

In the days that followed, I was like a dancer on a razor's edge — moving carefully, doing everything I could to keep this fragile, false peace intact.

During the day, I play the role of the wife of the Jarvis Group's CEO, accompanying him to social events, putting on a show of the loving couple we'd supposedly been for ten years.

At night, once he fell asleep, I'd slip into the bathroom and use the encrypted phone Andrew had given me to exchange messages with him.

Andrew was quietly digging through the files from the car accident ten years ago, searching for overlooked clues. Meanwhile, I was hunting obsessively through Kevin's daily life for any crack in his armor.

I started deliberately testing the real Nathan's weak spots.

The real Nathan had a severe allergy to mangoes — even touching one would break him out in hives. When Kevin first "woke up," he'd refused to go near mangoes, careful not to blow his cover. But as time passed, his guard seemed to have slipped.

On the weekend, I cooked myself and put together a full spread, including a mango dessert.

"Honey, try this — I just learned how to make it." I cut a small piece and held it out to him.

Kevin looked at the golden-yellow dessert, and a slight frown crossed his face.

"Elena, did you forget? I'm allergic to mango." His voice carried a faint note of reproach.

I covered my mouth in exaggerated surprise. "Oh no, how did I forget that! I'm so sorry, my memory has been terrible lately. But…"

I paused, locking my eyes on his, the ghost of a cold smile playing at the corner of my lips.

"But honey, I could've sworn I saw you eating a piece of dried mango in the study the other day while you were going through documents. I actually thought maybe the accident changed your body somehow, and the allergy just went away."

The air seemed to freeze.

The expression on Kevin Prescott's face went rigid. His pupils contracted sharply, and something ice-cold and terrifying flashed through those eyes that usually looked so warm.

He was studying me. Calculating whether what I'd just said was an innocent slip — or a deliberate test.

My palms were drenched in cold sweat, but I held his gaze without flinching, keeping my expression wide-eyed and confused.

"Is that so?" After a long silence, he suddenly laughed. The sound of it echoed through the empty dining room in a way that made my skin crawl. "I must have been so absorbed in those documents that I wasn't paying attention to what I was eating. Though, allergies are funny things — maybe you're right. Maybe my body really did change."

He picked up the plate of dessert, grabbed a spoon, scooped up a large bite, and put it in his mouth without a moment's hesitation.

"It's good." He swallowed and smiled at me.

I watched him finish every last bit of that mango dessert, and I felt no triumph at all — only a bone-deep chill.

He was terrifying.

To cover his tracks, he was willing to risk an "allergic reaction" just to keep the act going perfectly.

He had already figured out I was testing him.

From that day on, I could clearly feel Kevin's surveillance ratcheting up.

My car was bugged. My phone was showing unexplained data usage. Even the route I took every day to buy groceries was being tracked by someone in the shadows.

I was like prey caught in a spider's web — the more I struggled, the tighter it pulled.

But I couldn't stop.

I told Andrew about Kevin eating the mango.

"He's sending you a warning." Andrew's voice sounded unusually heavy through the encrypted phone. "Elena, you're taking too many risks. Kevin is the kind of person who will do absolutely anything to protect what he has. You need to be more careful."

"I know." I spoke through clenched teeth, hatred burning in my eyes. "But I have to push him until he slips up. Andrew — that woman who's been playing Nathan's mother, Morgan Palmer. What have you found out about her?"

The real Nathan's parents had died when he was young. He'd only had a distant aunt. After the accident, Kevin had brought this woman in and introduced her to the world as Nathan's adoptive mother, claiming he was letting her live out her remaining years in comfort.

But both Andrew and I suspected that Morgan Palmer wasn't who she claimed to be at all — she was Kevin's accomplice.

"I found it." Andrew's voice carried a hint of excitement. "This Morgan Palmer is no distant aunt. Her real identity is the cousin of Kevin Prescott's biological mother. Ten years ago, she racked up massive gambling debts, and Kevin paid off every last cent — on one condition: that she play along with his little act."

I let out a cold laugh.

Birds of a feather.

"Next month is Morgan Palmer's sixtieth birthday, and Kevin is throwing her a huge party at The Jarvis Manor." A sharp gleam flickered in my eyes. "That will be our perfect chance to tear off their masks."