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