Chapter 5 - “YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TRUST ME”
They spoke in the library.
Without the girls.
Without Rosamund.
Marcus stayed.
Sabina protested.
Chadworth insisted.
She paced.
“You spied on me?”
“I watched my own common areas after you accused an employee of theft.”
“You pretended to leave the country.”
“Yes.”
“That is insane.”
“Possibly.”
She stopped.
“You were testing me?”
“No.”
Chadworth leaned back.
“I was testing Rosamund.”
Sabina’s expression changed.
That truth hurt her more.
She had expected him to distrust the housekeeper.
He had.
For several hours.
Then reality intervened.
Sabina whispered:
“You were supposed to trust me.”
Chadworth stared.
“I did.”
Silence.
“That’s why this worked for as long as it did.”
Her face tightened.
“You’re choosing staff over your future wife.”
“No.”
He stood.
“I’m choosing my daughters over everyone.”
That ended something.
Sabina’s composure cracked.
“You think I don’t care about them?”
“You told Lorelai she was getting fat.”
“I said she needed better habits.”
“She’s six.”
“You’re raising them without discipline.”
“You told Gemma I’d stop loving sad girls.”
Sabina’s face flickered.
“She twists everything.”
“There’s a recording.”
Silence.
Chadworth continued.
“You broke Elise’s necklace.”
“She wouldn’t take it off.”
“It belonged to her mother.”
“Elise is dead.”
Marcus looked away.
Chadworth did not move.
Sabina realized too late what she had said.
She softened instantly.
“Chad—”
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“You do not get to use my dead wife’s name to justify humiliating my child.”
---
Then Marcus placed the copied trust document on the desk.
Sabina’s expression collapsed completely.
“What were you doing with this?”
She stared.
Nothing.
“Answer.”
“My lawyer was reviewing how marriage might affect family planning.”
“Family planning?”
“Yes.”
“My daughters’ trust?”
“I’m going to be their stepmother.”
“You were not yet.”
“But I would have responsibilities.”
“Not financial control.”
“I never said—”
“You spent a month telling me William was unreliable.”
Her silence answered.
Chadworth continued:
“You suggested replacing him as successor trustee.”
“I suggested planning responsibly.”
“With who?”
Sabina looked away.
“With me?”
Silence.
That was enough.
---
But the worst part came next.
Marcus had already spoken with the household accountant.
Sabina had asked questions.
Not withdrawals.
Not theft.
Questions.
How much each daughter would inherit.
At what ages.
Whether a future spouse could serve in administrative roles.
Whether Chadworth’s death would accelerate distributions.
Nothing illegal in asking.
Everything disturbing in context.
Chadworth stared at the woman he had planned to marry.
“Why?”
Her eyes filled.
“I wanted security.”
“You were marrying a billionaire.”
“For myself.”
There.
Not the girls.
Not family.
Herself.
She whispered:
“You don’t understand what it feels like to come into a house where every wall belongs to another woman.”
“Elise is dead.”
“Exactly.”
Sabina’s voice rose.
“And she is still everywhere!”
Photographs.
Children.
Trusts.
Memories.
A husband who never entirely stopped grieving.
Sabina continued:
“I was never going to matter here if those girls kept treating Rosamund like their mother and Elise like a saint.”
Chadworth’s face changed.
“This was competition to you.”
Sabina started crying.
He finally understood.
She had not been trying to parent his daughters.
She had been trying to win against them.
There was nothing left to discuss.
“Pack.”
Sabina stared.
“What?”
“Marcus will remain while you collect your personal belongings.”
“Chadworth.”
“The engagement is over.”
“You cannot be serious.”
“I have never been more serious.”
Her eyes hardened.
“Over a maid?”
“No.”
He looked toward the door.
“Over two little girls who became afraid to tell their father what was happening in his own home.”
May you like
That sentence ended it.
---
