Chapter 3

The months that followed were even harder than I expected.

Adrian woke up at six every morning. I followed him to the office, reviewed deals, worked on valuations, and learned how to find traps buried inside hundreds of pages of contracts.

When I made the wrong call, he never yelled at me. He would simply slide the file back across the table.

"Read it again."

One day, after revising the same analysis three times, I finally dropped my pen.

"Are you looking for reasons to say I'm wrong?"

Adrian turned the page toward me and pointed to the numbers I had circled.

"The growth rate is real. The profit is real too. What they didn't tell you is that they booked revenue from the next three years early."

I stared at the report.

He said, "Numbers don't lie. People using numbers do."

Vanessa's life was completely different.

Ryan took her to Miami, Paris, and yacht parties. New cars, jewelry, and designer dresses appeared on her social media almost every day.

Her personal assistant, Emily, followed her everywhere and handled her schedule and press requests.

Vanessa also made sure to send photos directly to me.

"Still reading financial reports?"

"Ryan says I don't have to worry about anything now that I'm his wife."

I never replied.

One evening, Victor had agreed to have dinner with Adrian and discuss a new project. The food was already on the table when Ryan called.

He was holding a celebration downtown, and several investors were there.

Victor stood up immediately.

He had never tried to hide the fact that Ryan was his favorite, even though Adrian was the eldest son and clearly the more capable one.

I looked at the dinner in front of us. "We should keep eating."

Adrian looked at me. "You're not embarrassed?"

"Victor left, but the food is still here. Why should the two of us go hungry because one man changed his plans?"

Adrian considered that for a moment.

"That is a fair point."

The next day, Vanessa came to see me.

Emily followed her in carrying several shopping bags from luxury stores. Vanessa lifted her wrist so I could see the diamond bracelet Ryan had given her.

"Do you see this? Your husband is the oldest son, but what does that matter? Victor cares about Ryan. A woman doesn't know she married well because her husband keeps making her study. She knows because he refuses to let her suffer."

Looking at her, I suddenly remembered Ryan in our last life.

He used to say the same thing to me.

"Claire, don't worry about it."

Then the moment something went wrong at the company, he would bring the files home.

"Can you look at this for me? You're better at this than I am."

All the freedom he had promised me eventually became another kind of work.

I did not explain any of that to Vanessa.

When I got home, I found a rack of fencing swords in Adrian's training room.

"You know how to fence?"

"I won the college league championship."

"Then teach me how."

He looked up. "Why do you want to learn?"

"Because I want to learn."

Adrian studied me for a few seconds, then tossed me a set of protective gear.

"Come back in ten minutes."

From then on, I studied investments with him during the day and fencing at night.

He was even stricter in training.

"Your footwork is too slow. Do it again."

"Relax your wrist and try again."

At first, I could not even touch him with my blade.

Six months later, I could block three of his attacks.

A year later, I forced him to step back for the first time.

Two years later, I competed in a charity fencing event at a private club in the Hamptons.

Vanessa stood nearby in a red designer gown with a crowd around her. I had just finished my final match.

My blade touched my opponent's chest, and applause filled the room.

I removed my mask.

Several people who had been talking to Vanessa turned to look at me instead.

Adrian stood at the back of the crowd. He checked the score and said, "Your last attack was slow."

I glared at him while the people around us laughed.

The smile on Vanessa's face slowly disappeared.

For the first time, she understood that everything she had hated learning in our last life had become something I could actually do.

That evening, I had barely returned to the estate when someone from Blackwood security came to the door.

A confidential acquisition plan worth two billion dollars had been sent from my personal computer to a competitor.