She pulled back. “What medical reports?”
My mother-in-law stepped forward. “This is Audrey’s drama. She is jealous because you are carrying the heir.”
The heir. Even now, standing outside a house she no longer owned, wearing jewelry bought with my money, she still thought blood could open gates that truth had locked.
Arthur lifted one page. “A draft psychiatric evaluation. Prepared two months ago. It states that Mrs. Audrey Miller has severe emotional instability after failed fertility treatments and may be a danger to herself.”
My throat tightened. I had seen that page once. At 2:30 a.m. in a hotel room, while the ocean crashed outside and my lawyer sat beside me in silence.
The report said I was depressive. Obsessive. Aggressive. Unable to accept infertility. Likely to harm a pregnant woman in the household.
A pregnant woman. Tiffany.
The plan had not been only betrayal. It had been burial.
Robert shouted, “That is fake! Anyone can make fake papers!”
Arthur looked at him coldly. “Yes. That is what your wife’s lawyer believes you did.”
Tiffany’s hand moved from her stomach to her throat. “Robert?”
He turned to her, smiling too quickly. “Baby, listen. She is trying to scare you. Audrey is bitter. You saw how she is.”
I almost laughed. He did not know I was watching. He did not know I had sound. He did not know the security feed was being recorded and sent live to Mr. Vance, my lawyer, and the detective from the Financial Crimes Unit who had arrived at my hotel suite that afternoon after seeing the documents tied to my company accounts.
Arthur turned another page. “There is also a draft guardianship filing. After the child’s birth, Mr. Miller was to claim that his first wife had accepted Tiffany’s child as the legal heir to the Miller estate.”
Tiffany whispered, “First wife?”
The words cut through her more than I expected. Maybe he had told her I was leaving. Maybe he had told her our marriage was finished. Maybe he had told her the same thing he once told me when he borrowed money for his business: “Trust me.”
Robert cursed under his breath.
My mother-in-law snapped, “Enough. Give us our things from inside.”
Arthur’s expression did not change. “There is nothing of yours inside. The staff packed personal items listed under Mrs. Miller’s instructions. They are with her lawyer.”
“My jewelry is there!” she shouted.
“Jewelry purchased using Mrs. Miller’s accounts is under a legal inventory.”
Her mouth opened. Closed. For the first time, I saw Katherine Miller understand that the palace had not belonged to the people who sat in its best rooms. It belonged to the woman they mocked for working too much.
Then Robert did what cowards do when documents begin speaking. He became loud.
“Call Audrey!” he screamed. “Tell that woman to come here!”
I picked up my phone and called the security guard. He answered at once. “Ma’am?”
“Put me on speaker.”
He did. My voice came through the small device near the gate.
“I am here, Robert.”
Everyone froze. He looked around wildly, then spotted the camera above the gate.
“Audrey,” he said, his tone changing instantly. “Listen to me. This has gone too far.”
“No,” I said. “For once, it has gone exactly far enough.”
Tiffany stared at the camera, her face completely pale.
My mother-in-law lifted her chin. “Son, let’s go. We will talk later.”
“Go where, Katherine?” I asked. “To which home? The one I bought? The one you used to bless another woman? The one you planned to take after declaring me insane?”
Silence.
