club, the smell of smoke, the sight of the mo
i
Gamb
e the sa
ping paralysis. Her mind frantically tried to reject it, to find some other explanation. But there was no
Ava's voice was a hoarse
h beautiful and cruel. She ran a perfe
etie. You've been funding our little
on her worn-out dress, her thin frame, her pale face. It was the loo
expected," Liam said. "A true workhorse. But a stand-in
"This is my Scarlett. The wom
d perfectly. The same eye shape, but expertly lined with makeup. The same bone structure, but with a healthy, well
e of begging for high-interest loans. The humiliation of the loan sharks banging on her door, terrorizing her and Leo. The end
. For him
oman, dripping in gold, surround
Ava choked out the word
ul thing. A little makeup, some good acting.
off her feet. The devoted husband. The desperate, tortured victi
ying thought pierced thr
a dawning, sickening realization. "You said you
d by a flicker of irritation. It was Scarlett who a
t?" She leaned forward, her eyes glinting. "The
ing a faint, almost invisible
a sigh. "Sometimes I need a little... top-up. And Liam, being the wonderful
ng bloo
the silent, screamin
e nearly fainted at work. The nurses at the clinic who told her she needed to rest, to
er. This woman.
e force, twice a week, to keep Li
e to Leo's doctors, to a better apartment, to food that wasn't stale bread and instant nood
y sign of the man she thought she had married. The
er and a curse. "Our son. He's sick,
d a dismi
nient, I know. But you're a stro
dle
she was responsible for. He had never once asked about Leo in his desperate phone calls. Not his first steps, not his first words, not the feve
iven her for four years, curdled into something black and bitter. It was a f
hey were pathetic. Her devotion
the monster. He wasn't The Gambl
gamble, the one he had bet o